


tethering

by fairyuphoria



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Angst, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Langst, Lots of Angst, M/M, Multi, Sad lance, Sorta I guess, Suicide Attempt, Time Travel, hurt!lance, ill add more to this later, klangst, so dont get freaked abt reading the story bc one tag, there are a bunch of relationships tbh, these tags may only apply to one chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2018-09-24 11:08:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9721499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairyuphoria/pseuds/fairyuphoria
Summary: Okay, so, maybe pressing weird Altean buttons on the side of your head gear wasn't the best idea, but Lance sure as hell didn't expect this to happen.Lance ends up throwing himself and his fellow paladins of Voltron into a Altean tradition for "starmates", essentially sending them on a tour of Lance's parallel lives throughout the universe. Lance learns a lot about not only his own feelings but that he should be more grateful sometimes, because holy shit some of his lives sure are shitty. I mean they have to be shitty if he's in love with Keith in almost every one... right? Right?





	1. beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi yall! i'm going to be rewriting all the current chapters over the next few weeks. i love this story, i know it seems like i've abanonded it but it's just because i've had a hard time looking at it and not feeling disappointed. i feel like i didn't put enough effort into it and it's shitty. so i'm going to rewrite the chapters that are up now so i feel more inspired to work on something i feel proud of! so i promise this story isn't dead!! and i will be updating new chapters soon (-: enjoy this rewritten chapter. i kinda got teary rewriting it honestly.

Lance has done a lot of stupid things in his life but this was definitely up there. You’d think someone entrusted with the fate and well-being of the universe would think twice before pressing random buttons on alien technology- and if anyone asked, that’s definitely  _ not _ what Lance had just done. His hand just happened to brush the button and send them travelling through space time. In reality though, Lance knew exactly what he was doing, even pondered briefly if he should really be pressing some oddly colored stud but in the head he’d ultimately thought, what real harm could it possibly do? And just like that, his boney foolish finger stabbed right into the unsuspecting button and just as Lance had predicted, absolutely nothing happened. A blaring alarm or even some flashing lights wouldn’t have surprised Lance, but everything was extremely normal when comparing life before the button pushing and after. Well, that is until Coran finally got Pidge’s headgear fully set up. When the younger paladin got their mind-melding gear, as Lance coined it, carefully connected to her head, that’s when it all got a little shifty. Finally, the flashing lights Lance had been anticipating began. Purple, though, opposed to the red he’d originally been expecting, which was somehow more unsettling. 

“Who pressed it?” Allura exclaimed, looking up from the screens around her, bright blue eyes wide with alarm. “Which one of you pressed the button?”

And for a moment everything was silent as each of the paladins glanced between one and other in confusion, but slowly their sights trailed over to Lance. Like Lance had said, he wasn’t the best in his choice of decisions, but still he was a bit offended by all of the excusing glares he was getting right now. “What are you all looking at me for!” Lance throws his hands up in outrage. “I didn’t do… i-it,” He tried to defend himself but the further he got into his sentence, the heavier his tongue felt and the more his teammate’s faces began to melt and blur together. And then the room was tilting, even when his body was still upright, at least he thought it was. Distantly, he heard Allura begin to yell something, right before his face became pale, eyes rolling as he finally slumped over. 

“Lance!” Hunk shouted, trying to make his way to his collapsed friend only to find all of his limbs unsteady and weak. In his frantic search for answers from his team, he only found black creeping around the edges of his vision. 

“What’s going on?” Shiro’s vision instantly locks with Allura, hoping she’d give them some sort of information as he tried to blink away his foggy vision. The rest of them watched in horror as their leader followed behind Lance in collapsing to the cold metal floors of the castleship. 

“It’s okay! Just try to stay calm and-” But before Coran could finish the rest of the conscious paladins were out as well. 

Waking up, to Lance, felt like when his siblings would bury him in the wet warm sand and he was try to rip his limbs up from the Earth with all of his might. Everything felt surreal, despite the darkness, he could still feel the familiar sensation of a breeze of sun-kissed skin. Slowly, his senses began to return to him, the ones that could recognize rustling of leaves, melodic birds chirping, the smell of soil and the indescribable scent of crisp air. 

Once he could feel his fingers again, he made it his goal to force his eyelids open. He could feel his heart hammering against his chest but couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Finally, like popping the cap of a bottle, his eyelids flew apart and he blinked away brightness until he could identify he was staring at a bright blue sky. Sky, sun, grass, trees. With a start, Lance shot upright with his realization, whipping his head around in shock. Earth, they were on Earth. 

Lance couldn’t help the grin that overtook his face, spreading from ear to ear. A groan heard from behind him was the only thing stopping him from bursting into tears of happiness right there. “Where are we?” Hunk grumbled, sitting up slowly and rubbing at his eyes. 

“Earth,” Lance mumbled breathlessly, still trying to convince himself of the fact. “We’re on Earth.”

As they were all beginning to wake up and take in their surroundings, all of them wide eyed and disbelieving, a voice boomed from above them. Hunk couldn’t contain a shrill squeak as the rest of them jumped, staring up at the sky in alarm. That was definitely new. “Paladins!”

They all seemed to relax slightly as the familiar voice set in. Coran. “I have to make this brief as your brains aren’t fully in stasis yet but they will be soon, but I just wanted to inform you that you’re about to travel through a myriad of parallel universes of whoever it was that pushed the yellow button on the right side of your headpieces,” A small pause happened before Coran speaks once more, “I’m not meaning to point fingers at anyone but… my bet is on you, Number three.”

Lance pouted slightly. Betrayed by his own space uncle. “I did n-”

“I cannot hear you but I’m assuming Lance is protesting what I’ve just said and to that I say, I know you did. I know all,” Everyone glances to one another for a moment, equally disturbed by the statement from the ginger alien and the silence that follows after. “Anyways! This means that you’re about to be sent through an ancient Altean tradition of finding your starmate. I am not sure how this will work with humans, if it will be compatible or work the same, but I believe it’ll be relatively similar. You all shall go through a few of Lance’s lives across the universe, parallel lives to be specific, no one will be able to see you but I suggest you still be careful with what you do. Like I said I’m not sure what exactly will happen with you being humans. And oh! Just remember whatever happens, you-” Coran’s voice cuts out, sounding somewhat static, before disappearing completely. 

Everyone sits, stunned in silence, for a bit after Coran blips out of their.... existence? “Well, that couldn’t have possibly been important,” Keith sarcastically mumbles, shaking his bangs out of his eyes before turning to Lance, starting a domino effect of everyone looking at their fellow blue paladin. Lance lets out a stressed chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to seem as innocent as possible

“So… we’re all stuck on some weird ‘Lives of Lance’ tour?” Pidge questioned, mouth puckered in distaste. 

“Maybe this is one of my nightmares,” Keith grumbled, reaching to pinch himself only to shake his head in disappointment. 

“I didn’t mean to send us through space time or whatever!” Lance huffs. 

“Alright, alright,” Shiro put on his leader voice, overpowering everyone else’s chatter, gaining their attention quite effectively. “Let’s just… figure out where we are,” Even Shiro seemed a bit lost, which was not comforting at all. “It looks like we’re on Earth, or some copy of Earth… and it seems like there are people over there. Maybe we can figure out something from them?”

Shiro raises a questioning eyebrow at the rest of his team, and with no better plan, they all dumbly nod in response. With that, the group travelled the small distance of field that separate them from where said people were gathering, which seemed to be next to some sort of chapel. As they neared it, Lance squinted as some hints of nostalgia ticked his mind. “I know this place,” He breathes, eyes searching the familiar building. “This is the church my grandma used to take my siblings and I to when we were younger. I haven’t been here since I was, I don’t know, maybe seven though, I’m not sure why we’d be here now, of all places.”

The rest of the group glanced between Lance and the white church, as the tall boy quickened his pace with this newly remembered information, halting when he almost collides with someone else. Out of habit, he began to apologize only to find them oblivious of his presence. Not only that, but he knew this person. At first, he almost brushed past him and continued on his way to his original destination, but in closer inspection he realized this man had the same annoying mullet as a certain someone he knew. 

“Keith!” Someone called out, catching the rather gloomy boy’s attention, looking to his left. The paladins followed his line of sight to find Coran stood near the open chapel doors, dressed in a black suit similar to the one Keith was wearing. This universe’s Keith looked so… sad. His eyes distant and appearing an even darker indigo with the bags under his eyes, yet he still mustered a small smile to Coran, beginning on his way towards the ginger. 

“This is weird,” Keith voiced, obviously irked at staring himself down while they followed his double over to the rather human looking version of Coran. His statement earns many agreeing hums from his friends. 

“How are you, my boy?” Coran’s voice is soft and cautious in a way that was only reserved for the most solemn of times, like when Lance had been injured in the bomb attack or when Shiro had first disappeared. One of the man’s hands land gently on Keith’s shoulder. “I know this must be incredibly hard for you. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through right now.”

Keith softly nods, eyes still far off, like the conversation wasn’t fully processing for him. “It’s in no way easy, I never thought it would be but I also never anticipated it to be… this hard,” Keith clears his throat as it begins to wobble just slightly, making all of the paladins lean forward curiously. “I know he wouldn’t want me to be sad over him so I’m trying not to be, if that brings him a bit of peace wherever he is.”

Coran can only muster a sad smile, looking over Keith’s shoulder briefly and locking eyes with another man, nodding at him as he approach himself and Keith. Like Coran had, the other clapped a reassuring hand onto Keith’s back, making him jump just slightly. 

“Coran,” The newly arrived, Shiro, nodded to the older man. This Shiro was also dressed in a well fitting black suit, but to their surprise, it seemed both of his visible hands were human. With further inspection, they found Shiro’s face unscarred and hair all one inky black color. It was odd seeing Shiro so untouched. “You sure you’re ready for this, Keith? If you need some time to-”

“No,” Keith cut the older man off, shaking his head. “I’m not going to miss this just because my own feelings.”

Shiro’s jaw clacked shut, simply nodding back at Keith before turning to Coran once more. “We’ll see you inside.” 

The paladins silently followed the two into the chapel, instantly affronted with the tense, sorrowful atmosphere pent up in the building. Everyone was dressed in black, some carrying tissues, others flowers and phamphlets. 

“This… I think this is a funeral,” Hunk whispered to everyone, blinking at the scene in surprise and following behind Keith and Shiro, until they halted in front of a row of benches. Was this how the rest of their trips through Lance’s lives going to be? The thought itself was daunting. 

“Keith,” A soft, warm voice called out, making him turn with an eyebrow raised. 

“Mama,” Lance whispered under his breath, finding his feet tripping over one and other trying to go towards his mother. Seeing the woman he’d been longing to see for months, maybe years now, made Lance’s heart stop. With her ringlets tamed into her usual braid that fell onto the back of his black dress, she looked just like Lance remembered. To his surprise, she began to make her way towards Keith with open arms, giving him a sad smile, her brown eyes glossy in a way that sent a shot of pain to Lance’s heart. There was nothing worse than seeing his mother cry. He watches as Keith stands in front of her for a few moments, mouth opening and closing, trying to capture words that kept slipping away from him. The longer it goes on, the more Keith’s composure seems to break, looking into the eyes of Lance’s mother, Keith’s own indigo eyes began to become glassy, finally allowing himself to be enveloped in her arms. 

“I’m sorry,” Keith’s choked voice is barely audible from where their standing, but the pain that is ingrained in it is unmistakable. Lance could only wonder what had his mother  _ and _ Keith so upset about. They all watched as Lance’s mother cradled Keith’s head, smoothing his hair, as tears began to swell in her eyes. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry today, I didn’t want- I-”

The longer Keith goes on, the more his voice shakes, and although they can’t see his face with it buried in Lance’s mother’s shoulder, they can guess he’s breaking his promise already. “Sh, sh, mijo,” She hushed him, pulling back to look him in the eyes, both of them mirroring pain onto each other. She can barely muster another shaky smile as she uses worn hands to cup either sides of Keith’s face, thumbs swiping away the few tears that manage to skid down his pale cheeks. “You’re allowed to cry, you’re allowed to mourn. No one is judging you here, this is your family.”

The statement seems to tug at something deep within this universe’s Keith, as a muffled sob breaks past his lips, head dipping down to rest back on Lance’s mother’s shoulder, as her own tears begin to freefall. “You’re allowed to miss him.”

As Keith pulls back away, pursing his lips and pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes, willing the tears to stop, he still nods back. “I know and I do. I miss him so much.”

There is something about seeing Keith cry that has all of them rattled, they’d only seen Keith come close to tears when they’d first found the black lion abandoned, and even then, he was quick to hide. Make sure no one saw, but here, it was almost like he couldn’t. Couldn’t hide and couldn’t put up the wall he usually reinforced in hard times, to make sure no one saw how much he was hurting, to not appear vulnerable. 

“Me too,” Lance’s mother whispered brokenly. “Thank you for coming. Not just for Lance, but for all of us too,” She gestures to the large group of people behind here- his family, Lance realizes like a kick to the chest, knocking the breath out of him. Some of them were hugging, some smiling and sharing memories, others weeping. “You’re our family too, you always will be. You’re a McClain, with or without Lance. You always have a place here.”

“Fuck,” Keith mutters, bowing his head and biting his lip, trying to stop any further waterworks. “Rosa…” He croaks. 

“You don’t have to say anything,” She softly smiles, pushing a bit of his long black hair out of his face. Leaning in, she presses a chaste kiss to his forehead. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”

“You guys… shit,” Pidge begins, voice shaking slightly as she drags her eyes away from the scene and back to her teammates who look equally as a shell-shocked as herself. “I think this is Lance’s funeral.”


	2. To Live is to Love, to Love is to Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The funeral march plays in the background, so subtly drowning out the sound of wedding bells.

“What the fuck?” Was all that Lance managed to squeak out, turning slowly in circles to observe the small chapel seemingly packed to the brim with people all in varying dresses of black. “This is… my funeral?”

 

The fact didn’t seem far from the truth, Lance could accept that in this universe he had died, but still the mere thought that he was at his own funeral right now boggled his mind to no end. Would this be how it was in his own universe when he died? Would this many people show up? Would this many people actually be sad that he was dead? He figured the answer to all of those questions were no, he was in space far far far away from his family and anyone who knew him well enough to care if he died, which would more than likely happen in some fight against an alien race, with only the rest of team Voltron to mourn him before promptly finding a new blue paladin. His death in his own universe would be almost soundless- back on Earth he was most likely already ‘dead’. 

 

He knew almost everyone he was looking at- spear a few here and there that this Lance had managed to pick up along the way that he hadn’t in his own life. Judging by how this Keith was slightly taller than their own, he guessed they were all a little older than them, but not by much. That being said, it seemed that they never managed to get rocketed into space in a giant blue lion, both of Shiro’s arms still there as he made his way to where Pidge, Hunk, and Allura were already gathered in one of the front benches on the opposite side of all of his family. They were all dressed in black as well, unsurprisingly, Pidge’s hair falling down her back, longer than the Pidge he knew, Allura’s face gloomy and downcast. Hunk on the other hand, had his hand crumpled in the front of his white button up, face screwed up in such a way it looked painful, eyes squeezed shut, not keeping the salty tears from slipping out the creases and down his brown skin. It hurt Lance to even glance at it, but now his eyes were glued to the scene, watching as Shiro pulled Pidge’s small body in a hug, catching the look in Hunk’s eyes when he finally looks up and his teary eyes meet Keith’s own from across the hall, making Keith give a chaste kiss to his mother and travel to Hunk. Without sparing a moment of second thought Keith wrapped his arms around the larger boy, his own holding onto Keith as he sobbed into his shoulder, mumbling things they couldn’t hear. Keith’s eyes travel up, glossy and red, momentarily getting snagged on the coffin at the front of the chapel, making him draw in a shaky breath.

 

“This is… I…” Lance stutters, feeling a weight in his heart that had never felt so heavy. This was different from the sadness he felt about not being able to see his family, different from the sadness his depression and anxiety overloaded him with some nights, and so much more different than the sadness and fear of death combined. This hurt so much more somewhere deeper within his core. He wanted it to stop. 

 

Something begins to rush towards them, a short and small black blob from Lance’s peripheral vision. With a small hurt gasp, he manages to croak out, “Nina?”

 

Much to everyone's surprise, the little girl immediately stops in her haste to exit the chapel, looking up to the space where Lance stood; where she shouldn’t be able to see him. Her dark brown eyes widen comically, large fat tears that had been sitting on her waterline tilting and wobbling, threatening to spill. “B-Bubba?” 

 

Everyone’s eyes widen, a small breath leaves Lance’s lungs as his little sister reaches out to him, gaze meeting his own, but her arms simply passed right through him, making her stumble forwards and begin looking around frantically.  “Lance?! Wh-Where did you go, I-”

 

The small girl began to spin in circles, searching for him, as if he had pulled some magic trick, one second he was there- the next he was gone. Lance’s breath gets caught in his throat as he watched the scene before him, this wasn’t his life, he wasn’t dead, but this was still his little sister. The same one who he missed dearly everyday, who he missed crawling into bed with him at night, who was so immensely clever for her age it boggled his mind, this still hurt because that was still his sister. 

 

“Nina? Sweetheart, what are you doing?” A soft voice questions, bringing his attention to another one of his younger siblings, not much younger than himself. She knelt down besides Nina, whose hands were rung in her black funeral dress, large glassy tears rolling down her brown skin. 

 

“I saw Lance! I saw him, he was right here,” Her voice quivers as she speaks, throwing her hand behind her to point at the spot that Lance and everyone else were still standing, watching in shock, some of their faces twisting up in second-hand pain. 

 

His sister, Camille, looked to the spot she pointed, almost, just almost, meeting his eyes, but instead staring right through him, eyebrows tilting up at the fronts before looking back to Nina. “Hermanita… there’s no one there, Lance is… Lance is gone.”

 

Nina let out a strangled groan of sorts, sounding both parts frustrated and hurt. “No, I saw him, he was right there, he said my name!”

 

“Nina,” A deeper voice came from behind the two girls, almost warning, but still echoing back the same pain. James, Lance’s older brother, the sibling closest in age to him, ironically looking most like him as well, scooped Nina up from under her arms, making her let out a cry, flailing her arms. 

 

“No! No! I want tio! I want tio!” She cried, throwing back her head in a tantrum. James raises a curious eyebrow, looking around for their uncle, just incase he had missed the fact he had flown all the way from Cuba for Lance’s funeral. Last he had heard, their uncle wouldn’t stop apologizing for not being able to make it, his work and financial state simply not allowing it, no matter how much he wanted to be here. 

 

“Tio Javier isn’t here-,” Camille softly tells Nina, only to get cut off by Nina’s wails. 

 

“No! I want Tio Keith!” She cried, loud enough that it made Keith from a few feet away, wiping away Hunk’s stray tears, turn around with an eyebrow raised. 

 

James frowned slightly but nodded, carrying her silently over to where Keith was stood in their small circle of mourning friends. “She said she wanted her Tio Keith.”

 

Keith’s mouth forms a small ‘o, eyebrows raising on his forehead before smiling sadly at the both of them, nodding and taking Nina from James’ arms. “I’ll watch her until she’s calmed down.”

 

James nods, giving Keith a polite smile, rubbing a hand on his arms in his own comfort before walking back to his side of the pews. Camille lingers a little longer to tell Nina to be good and tell Keith thank you. With a soft sigh, Keith sits on the bench that his friends had claimed for when the funeral started, Nina set on his lap. “Nina,” Keith starts, using his middle and pointer finger to push a few strands of dark curly hair back behind her hair, making sure she was paying attention. Once her bloodshot, glossy brown eyes met his own, he began speaking. “You know I’m not actually your uncle right?”

 

Nina looked completely confused, face screwing up and eyes squinted at him almost in annoyance. “Yes you are, you and Bubba were gonna get married right?”

 

“What?!” Lance squawks, watching his sister ask the question so innocently to the other Keith. Meanwhile he could hear his own time’s Keith choking on his spit. No way, in any universe, any timeline, or anywhere in the entire galaxy would Lance fall for Keith, much rather want to get married to him. Surely, Keith’s answer was going to be no. Surely, it was just another one of his sister’s cases of her imagination running too wild. 

 

“Yeah, we were,” Keith responses, a frown suddenly plaguing his lips as he answered. Lance let out a small shocked whine, earning an unamused look from Shiro. “But the keyword is  _ were _ , Nina. That means we’re not anymore, we can’t because Lance isn’t… here anymore, so I can never marry him like we wanted to.”

 

Nina frowns back at him with much more vigor. “That doesn’t matter, Lance loved you. He loved you more than he liked Papa Giagrio’s garlic knots, and he liked garlic knots  _ a lot _ ! It doesn’t matter if you guys aren’t real-life married, you’re still my tio.”

 

Keith’s mouth slightly parts, taking in what the five year old had said, before spreading into a wet smile, eyes shining as he shakes his head. “You never fail to amaze me, Nina.”

 

“I am pretty amazing,” Nina shrugs, making Keith throw his head back, small huffy laughter sounding out through the church, seeming to warm and brighten the atmosphere ever so slightly. 

 

“Yes, yes you are, and that’s why I love you, munchkin,” Keith smiles warmly, wiping at the corners of his eyes. 

 

“I love you too, Tio Keef,” Nina responds, pressing a small kiss to his cheek before cuddling into his chest, making Keith rest back against the bench, a slight bit of tension draining from his shoulder, face looking much happier than it was when they’d first seen him enter the church. 

 

“What the fuck?” Lance asks, voice high pitched and unbelieving. “Do you guys see this? Did you guys just see what I saw, what the actual fuck I’m so-”

 

“Calm down, Lance,” Hunk scolds. “Yes we all saw that, it was kind of too adorable to miss.”

“Adorable?! That’s Keith and my little sister, who just said that I loved him more than garlic knots! That’s definitely a lie. I love nothing more than garlic knots,  _ nothing _ !” Lance waved his arms wildly as he ranted, trying to get the point acrossed on just how ridiculous and untrue this situation was. 

 

“I guess you must really love him then,” Shiro’s smile was soft, yet still teasing. There was no denying that despite the heavy and sad surroundings of this first universe they’d ended up in, watching his brother curled up so adorably with Lance’s little sister had done a number on his heart. You could call Shiro a closet romantic, he definitely wasn’t one to flaunt how in love he was with love, but he couldn’t help fawning over watching others in such pure love, on the inside that is, no one else needs to know how much his heart soars at watching this Keith say he was going to marry Lance. Keith and Lance weren’t exactly the first thing that came to mind when he thought of the ‘perfect couple’ but this Keith and Lance seemed to have been, from the little bit of slightly gloomy information he’d received. Keith obviously really loved Lance in this universe, and it was now evident that Lance had reciprocated just as much- if not more. 

 

Shiro’s eyes travelled over to glance at Keith, surprised to find him standing stiffly, staring at this version of himself. That aspect of things wasn’t exactly that surprising, what was startling was the dark red blush seeming to dust completely over every inch of his exposed skin. Keith’s eyes widen when he finally drags his violet eyes to Shiro, finding him staring back at him with an amused smirk and a quirked eyebrow. 

 

“Test, test,” The voice sounded around the church loudly, making everyone, including themselves, turn to look at the stage at the front of the church, stainglass windows throwing colored sun all around the church walls. Lance’s mother stood in front of an altar, microphone gripped within her fingers. “Hello, welcome everyone, I just wanted to thank so many people for showing up today, it makes my heart very happy knowing that my son was surrounded by so many people who loved and cared for him, not to mention the lot of them that couldn’t make it today. Lance would be smiling right now seeing how many people came for him, and unbelieving probably.”

 

A soft hush of laughter sounds through the church. Lance supposes she’s not wrong, he didn’t truly believe that  _ all  _ of these people were here for him. Hunk leans slightly to look at Lance watching his mother speak, a small smirk falling upon his face as well because she was right, he was smiling. 

 

“We didn’t hire any of that fancy pastor stuff, we just wanted to have all of the people closest to Lance speak, if they were comfortable with it that is, to speak a few words, help us all remember the wonderful times we had with Lance. These aren’t supposed to be masterpieces, so don’t stress too much, looking at you Keith,” Lance’s mother sends Keith a pointed look, making the crowd laugh. 

 

Keith smirks, yelling back a response. “Little too late for that, Rosa.”

 

Rosa gives him a soft smile before continuing on after the few remaining chuckles calmed. “I suppose I’ll kick this off with a few words of my own. It’ll be nothing special, so don’t get your hopes too high.”

 

Everyone got the feeling that those words were a lie, that this was going to be something very meaningful and dear to everyone in the chapel. Lance could already feel his heart sinking, an anchor wrapped around his heart and dragging it down into the depths of his stomach. These words weren’t meant for him, but they were still about him, or some version of him. They were still going to feel real. 

 

With a small breath, Rosa smiled out to the crowd watching her. “Lance was a surprise, his father and I never originally intended to have more than two maybe three kids, obviously that didn’t work out as planned,” Rosa chuckles, laughter from Lance’s other seven siblings echos after her words. “So when I found out I was pregnant, it was a shock, but even more of a shock was the happiness I felt at the thought of another little bundle of joy to call my own. Lance, in a very Lance way, continued to give us surprises. The doctor told us we were having a girl, that remained what we believed until a beautiful baby boy was plopped onto my chest after a twenty-three hour delivery. I just remember looking at him, Jose had this look of shock on his face, but I could only take in how silent he was, barely cried when he was first born. I thought- God, what a miracle, thank you for blessing me with a quiet one.”

 

A few laughs follow her words, including one from Shiro, who snorted loudly. “Obviously, anyone who had even been within three feet of Lance for two seconds would be able to tell I was a fool for believing that for even one second. Lance was a quiet kid until he reached around the age of two, then he became some sort of walking sonic boom, but that was okay- I found an odd comfort in that. A comfort I no longer have.

 

Lance was a blessing in disguise. He taught me so many things, but more than anything he taught me to love surprises. To make the most out of them, even the bad ones. I will hold the mornings where he hadn’t slept and would instead help me with breakfast for the little ones and just let me talk about anything and everything and he’d just listen with this small smile on his face. Then, when he was too sick to walk anymore and the headaches and vomiting kept him from sleeping, he’d still accompany me in the early hours of the morning and despite having much more on his mind, he remained quiet and still just let me talk. Lance was sort of like a geode in my mind, ya know those rocks that just look like plain ol’ rocks on the outside but inside they’re covered in beautiful sparkling crystals; yeah that was Lance. He never let anyone see his true sparkle, he’d taunt and flaunt little sights of it, but never fully open up, but when he did, he would take your breath away. I will miss his sassy comments, his laughter, his hugs, I’ll even miss when he- when we fought.”

 

Rosa let out a small hiccup, bringing her finger to her eyes to wipe away the slow leak of tears. With a shaky breath and one jump of her shoulders she continued. “Lance was the best son I could’ve asked for and there is not a day that passes that I don’t wish that we would’ve found the cancer quicker, that I would’ve noticed the symptoms quickers, but I didn’t. I know he wouldn’t want me to feel guilty about this, but I do, and probably will for the rest of my life. There is also never a day that will go by that I don’t think about how much I loved my son that went away much too soon. He brightened lives daily, without even realizing it most times, he made people so happy. He was our angel.”

 

She gave a wet smile to the teary audience watching her, nodding to signal her speech was over. Lance wipes away the tears that had begun to spill down his cheeks, mixing in with his freckles, getting caught on his chin. He wonders if back home- where the Garrison probably told his family he was dead- if they said such kind words about him. He hopes so. “Thank you for listening. Next up is some of Lance’s best friends. You guys ready?”

 

The group in the front pew shuffles about, Rosa stepping off the slightly elevated stage to scoop a sleeping Nina from Keith’s arms. He gives her a small smile, whispering something in her ear that makes her eyes wet once more, before joining the rest of his group of friends on the stage. 

 

Standing in their group, watching this sad versions of themselves was odd. They looked just like them, only with a few defining differences. Pidge stood just a smidge taller than they knew her too, Hunk had ditched the yellow bandana completely, Shiro leaned just slightly more into Allura’s side, who twined their fingers together in comfort, and then there was Keith. Who stood so much more openly than he did for them, his face showing his emotions, rather than the blank slate they were used to. He looked almost… at home amongst these people. 

 

“Uh, I guess I’ll go first,” Hunk mumbles, stepping forward to the microphone stand. “I’m definitely not promising to stay dry eyed and I’ll try to keep this short for my sake and also yours. Uhm, so, I met Lance when we were in second grade, at first we didn’t really talk to one another. Lance usually kept to himself, he read a lot of books back then. But one day we were out a recess, and these kids, they’d been tormenting me since first grade, before Lance had even moved here from Cuba, I wasn’t expecting anything to change, they continued to do it. One day though, Lance overheard what they were saying, he saw them push me down, saw me unable to do anything, and he’d done what no second grader had ever thought to do to Michael Shapero and Jason Hunt- he punched them both right in the nose.

 

Now, keep in mind, Lance at this time was not the tall boy we all knew, he was pretty short and tiny, I swore they were going to both just fling him to the other side of the school. But instead, he just kept going, he was yelling things in spanish that none of us, other than him understood, but I’m sure it was something a second grader shouldn’t be saying. In this end Lance managed to get them to run off with broken noses and black eyes. He stood over me, and this is when I realize Michael or Jason had punched out one of his baby teeth, so his face is covered in blood, as well as his hands- and he just reaches out one hand, with this huge bloody smile and says, ‘Hi, I’m Lance, want to be friends?’”

 

Both Hunk’s chuckle as he says it, because this was true in both of their universes, this is how they met, it brought back bittersweet memories. Hunk turned to Lance, throwing an arm around his shoulder and tugging him into his side. He would still forever be grateful for Lance fighting off all of his demons, even if they were ten times bigger than him, he never failed to protect him or die trying. The other Hunk, up on stage, continues. “That was how I met Lance McClain, and like Rosa said, I suppose he was sort of like a guardian angel, even if that sounds cheesy. He would fight anyone who tried to hurt me, even if they were much… fight-ier than him, he’d still do it for me. And now, I guess I’m going to have to fight my battles myself. 

 

It’s hard losing your best friend. I mean, I always knew it’d be hard when he died, especially after we found out about… the sickness, but I never expected it to hurt this much. It’s like part of me has died with him. I, uh- I guess I’m rambling now so I’ll wrap it up. Lance was the best friend I could’ve asked for in the entire world, I don’t know how I’ll be able to have movie nights marathoning Princess Bride and the Bee Movie without him now, and it’s just those small things you don’t think about but that hurt the most to lose. I love him and I always will love him. He will forever be my best friend.”

 

Hunk nods, wiping away tears as he stood back, the audience clapping at his bravery for being able to stand up infront of everyone and talk about something so emotionally raw. But he didn’t do it for them- he did it for Lance. 

 

Lance let out a wet sniff, drawing everyone's attention, Keith’s eyes widening to find Lance in tears- way too many to go this long crying silently. Those were a sob-worthy amount of tears. Pidge manages to worm her away around Lance’s waist to give him a hug, Shiro clasping a comforting hand onto his shoulder. Keith just sort of… hovered. He had never been good with emotions, his own and most definitely others, he never knew how to comfort someone correctly so he just didn’t- better not at all then to mess up, right?

 

“Allura and I are going to be doing ours together, it’s not going to be nearly as heart-touching as Rosa or Hunk’s, but we’ll try,” Shiro’s voice sounds throughout the church, pulling their attention back to the platform. “Allura and I haven’t known Lance for nearly as long as most of you in this room, or any of us up here. I personally became acquainted with Lance through my brother, Keith, when they met in freshman year of college. And let me tell you- what a rollercoaster of a way to shape my perspective on Lance. First it started with a few texts about this annoying kid who he had to share a dorm room with, this continued for a few months, until one day out of the blue I get a text message saying ‘Haha, so Lance isn’t cute right? Please tell me he isn’t cute, God, Shiro, please assure me that I’m going crazy right now.’”

 

The audience lets out loud laughter, meanwhile both Keith’s, on stage and not, turned an impressive shade of red. “Oh c’mon, what are you blushing at, you were literally gonna marry the guy,” Shiro teased, making Keith laugh a little, still covering his crimson colored face with his hands. “Anyways, this also continues for a few months, that is until I get one single text. The Text of a lifetime if you will, saying ‘He said he loved me and I slapped him?’ Now my brother has done a lot of stupid things in his life-”

 

“Hey!”

 

“But this was definitely his peek. Only he would manage to slap the love of his life after they had confessed the fact that’d been pining on him since the day they met.”

 

“Excuse me, to be fair, he did it in the stupidest way ever. Here I was hopelessly daydreaming for months what it would be like confessing to each other and then one night I’m setting up our movie night, Lance is making pizza rolls, and suddenly he just plops down on the couch next to me, super casually and just says, ‘Hey by the way I’ve been in love with you for like eight months’,” Keith butts into Shiro’s speak, earning laughter and snorts from the crowd, as well as Shiro. “You can’t tell me, that if you were in my shoes, you wouldn’t slap him too.”

 

“I remember five hours later sometime around four in the morning getting a follow up text saying ‘I’m gonna marry this boy’,” Shiro smiled softly, looking to Keith’s face, twisting in a mix of nostalgia and a bittersweet smile. “I think it’s safe to assume they worked it all out, I’ve never seen Keith be happier in his life, much less with someone. They were the best mix, complete opposites in a lot of aspects, but the same in many others. This proved to be kind of a disaster, quite a few times, but one that stands out the most is their proposal.”

 

All of the people on the stage before them let out a snort, while Keith groaned, once again burying his face in his hands. “See, Lance came to me one day exclaiming how he had come up with the perfect way to propose to Keith, that he was ready to spend the rest of his life with him for sure, that he’d gotten the perfect ring. Everything was planned out in his mind. It was rather endearing,” Allura finally spoke, smiling fondly at the memory. “You can imagine my surprise when Keith, a week later, came to me saying the same thing, but a lot more nerve-wrecked. I didn’t have the courage to tell either of them, I couldn’t spoil something that special for them both, so I just sort of… let them and see what happens.”

 

“In other words, she’s evil,” Keith adds, giving her a glare. Even Lance found himself laughing at this Keith’s comment. 

 

“I knew too,” Pidge mischievously pipes up. “I didn’t even think about telling them, I just waited until chaos ensued.”

 

“In other words, she’s an extremely evil little gremlin,” Keith deadpans.

 

“This is besides the point,” Allura begins again, stifling her remaining chuckles. “So, with their luck, it’s only right that they both choose the exact same day to propose and guess what?”

 

“Oh no…” Keith breathes out as he catches sight of both his brother and his step-sister’s devious smiles. 

 

“We videotaped it all. We were waiting for the wedding to show it but…” Allura gives Keith a saddened smile. “Do you wanna see it?”

 

“Show it!” One of Lance’s siblings yells from the front row of the pews, getting hit by his madre for being so loud. 

 

Keith simply nods back to Shiro and Allura, signalling for Pidge to start the video from her computer, projecting it onto the projector screen behind them.

 

_ The video begins shakily, the ground twisting and blurring past the camera as the recorder shifts about hectically. “Pidge, hurry up! Lance is gonna do it soon I can feel it!” Hunk’s voice whispers in excitement. _

 

_ Finally the view on the screen stills, showing a slightly darkened observatory room, projections of stars and planets swirling around two dimly lit people in the middle. A few of the white specks of stars catches on the two of them, showing bits of Keith’s dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, another shows Lance’s bright smile and blue eyes staring at the shorter boy lovingly.  _

 

_ A small gasp comes from the video recorder’s side. “He’s doing it-” _

 

_ “Wait-” _

 

_ “Oh my god.” _

 

_ “Lance,” Keith’s voice shakes as he stumbles down to one knee, holding a velvety box in both hands, looking up to a shocked Lance, who gapes back at him before jumping up and down.  _

 

_ “No! Oh my god! No, no, no!! Don’t you dare. You better not be doing what I think you’re doing!” Lance screeches, waving his arms like a madman. _

 

_ Even in the darkness around them, you can see the way Keith deflated at the other boys actions, lips turning into a frown and eyebrows tipping upwards sadly. “W-What?” _

 

_ “You’re not allowed to do that! I had a whole huge plan and everything! You can’t just beat me to it!” Lance exclaims, now pacing in circles, arms thrown towards the sky in distress. _

 

_ Keith slowly stands, the ring box hanging dejected from his grasp. “So is that… a no?” _

 

_ Lance turns so quickly back towards Keith that Pidge is surprised he didn’t give himself whiplash. “What the he- Keith what are you talking about, I’d be an idiot to say no to you.” _

_ “If I remember correctly you just said no to me at least four times,” Keith deadpans. _

 

_ Lance lets out a groan, tugging at his hair in frustrations. “Listen, I’m gonna marry you, one way or another I’m gonna marry your ass so hard-” _

 

_ “What are you-” _

 

_ “But I had this whole plan and everything! And then there you go, beating me to one knee, looking all god damn beautiful! How could I say no! But I bought you a ring! I wanted to see the shock on your face when I proposed!” Lance practically yells. _

 

_ Keith is silent for a long time, lips slightly parted. “Wait you- when you what- I’m so- a ring?” _

 

_ Lance lets out a small sigh, digging through his pocket and pulling out a similar velvet box, opening it slowly before gazing back up at Keith. “I was going to ask you to spend the rest of your life with me,” Lance whispers softly. _

 

_ Keith’s lip wobbles, even though he had just been the one about to ask the same question to Lance moments again, hearing Lance say it was completely different. The look in his eyes, the tenderness that seemed to promise him the best future he could have. He saw it all, buying a house together, adopting little munchkins, growing old together; he saw it and he wanted it all.  _

 

_ “I think you know what my answer is,” Keith chokes out, holding up his hand for Lance to slid the beautiful ring onto it. It was the most fitting ring for himself he’d ever seen, it was like someone had took his being and compressed it into a metal band. It glistened in the soft light, a black that was somehow bright at the same time, with one singular ruby gem pressed into the middle. It seemed to fit like it had always been there.  _

 

_ “What about you?” Keith manages to get out, looking up through his eyelashes. “Will you marry my mullet ass?” _

 

_ Lance lets out a choked laugh and just like that he’s laughing through tears, streaming freely down his cheeks as he nods, holding out his hand much like Keith had done. Lance couldn’t suppress the gasp that slipped from his lips when he saw the ring Keith had chosen for him. It was a beautiful grey band, textured with odd shimmer. One strip of blue opal down the center. “Wow, talk about stepping me up.” _

 

_ “It’s made out of a meteorite,” Keith replies as he fits the ring onto Lance’s tanned finger. _

 

_ “Meteor- Jesus christ, Keith, you’re too good to me,” Lance laughs softly. He finally meets the other’s soft grey eyes. This was home. Right here, knowing that they’d be together for the rest of their lives. That was home. _

 

The video ends with the two of them sharing a loving kiss before Pidge screams about them being disgustingly cute and the video cuts off. 

 

Watching themselves, in this universe, be so sickly in love was… well it was surprising. Not in one universe had Lance ever imagined himself ending up with Keith, and definitely not in such a good relationship. The way he’d seen himself look at Keith was the way he used to watch his Mama stare at his Papa when they’d thought all the kids had gone to bed and they danced in the kitchen like it was a ballroom. That was the love he had always dreamed of finding one day. And here he had, and with Keith. Honestly, he couldn’t even bring himself to feel weirded out or gross about it at the moment. Not when Keith on the stage before him was crying and still wearing the black metal band, the red gem catching the sun as he wipes away a stray tear. 

 

He spares one glance at Keith, standing a few feet away from him. He has this funny look on his face that Lance had never seen him wear, one that made his eyebrows furrow and lips tip down, eyes looking wide and surprised. It almost looked like longing.  _ Almost. _

 

“They were the most in love people I had ever met, and probably will ever meet in my lifetime,” Shiro concludes. “I loved him like a brother, because he was. I can only hope to be half the man Lance was.”

 

Allura squeezes Shiro’s hand as they both nod in conclusion, stepping back and staring carefully back at Keith. The man let out a deep breath before shakily stepping forward to the mic, taking out a set of notecards from one of his suit pockets. “Uh, hi, I’m Keith- but most of you probably already knew that,” Keith shakes his head, staring down at his notecards in silence for a moment before tucking them back into his pocket. “I-I tried to write this all down, get it out and plan what I was going to say about Lance, about the memories we shared, about how much I miss him but honestly, no words can explain any of those things. I met Lance right as I was getting the hang of life and here came this boy who seemed like he’d always known just what to do with his existence, someone so sure and confident- it kind of scared me. I didn’t understand him so I didn’t make an effort to, I pushed him away but that didn’t stop him from pushing back.

 

I, like many other people, love art. I can’t help staring at it, trying to figure out just what it means, and then I fall in love with it. That’s exactly what Lance was; art. I didn’t realize at first that I had unwillingly thrown myself into the line of fire of a ‘Hey Loser You’re in Love with Lance’ bullet. At first I’d thought this was the worst decision of my life, but now I can confidently say it was the best. Lance taught me many things. He taught me that it was okay to be broken sometimes, as long as you keep looking forward. He taught me what family was. I’d never in my life experienced a permanent, stable home life, I started to believe it didn’t even exist, but then Lance introduced me to his family,” Keith gestures to the rows of McClains in front of him, giving them all a smile. “They welcomed me in without even a second of doubt. They treated me like I had always been apart of the family. They teased me like I was one of their own, loved me like I was just another brother or son, including me in Christmas’, and that’s when I realized, I was a McClain. This was the family I had been waiting for.”

Keith lets out a shaky breath, wiping away the start of tears from the corners of his eyes. “But most of all, Lance taught me how to love and how to live. I didn’t think these two things went hand-in-hand at first, but Lance showed me that they were practically the same thing. To love is to live, to live is to love. I hadn’t been living before I met him, I know that sound cheesy as hell, but I really hadn’t. I didn’t see any point in loving something if eventually it’d go away. I know now, that to love something or  _ someone _ , even if they end up leaving you, sometimes in the cruelest of ways, it’s so worth it. I’ve lived now. I’ve loved. And I don’t regret a minute of it.”

 

Keith looked up to the crowd was a large, teary smile. “I loved Lance McClain, and I always will, until the day I meet him again, I will love him.”

 

The crowd erupts into cheers and clapping at Keith’s bravery for speaking such beautiful words about such a difficult topic. They cheered because everything he had said was true, that almost all of the people that had been listening, had experienced something similar with Lance as well. He had taught them all sometimes, he’d shown them all love. 

 

Lance turns to look at Keith and is surprised when he finds the other boy’s eyes waterlogged and wide. “Keith?” He tries to ask, reaching out, but everything begins to sound like it’s underwater. His hand wavers before him, the clapping becoming echos shooting around his head. 

 

And then black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO sorry about the long wait for this chapter, it ended up being a lot longer than i originally anticipated, I spent a lot of time writing it in my college class (oops) but I hope this is good. I haven't proof read it or anything so it's probably pretty messy but hey- the writer ressembles their work.


	3. Altea Home for Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meets younger versions of Lance and Keith who are practically inseperable and can oddly enough... see them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello pals it's 3am and i just randomly started writing this, sorry for the wait, as always- I was super sick but I'm better now!
> 
> I didn't proof read this but whose even surprised honestly. enjoy this small little thing (it's rlly shitty im tired, sorry)

Once Lance finally began to blink the foggy darkness out of his eyes, we found himself standing in the center of a large foyer. The house smelled like mothballs and his grandma's house, so basically, even more mothballs. Just from looking at the large wooden staircase and hallway in front of the group they could tell the house was older than any of them, creaks coming from somewhere else above them, making the whole structure groan. “Where are we?” Hunk questioned as he stepped towards a wall, opposite of the stairs, lined with picture frames. The rest of them followed closely behind him to examine the photos. Most were pictures of children, none of them looking very familiar, but all of the photographs were in varying states of weather and age. A few were in black and white, the fashion in them obviously extremely outdated, moving into some more sepia toned pictures screaming 70s and 80s, following into a more modern looking quality.

 

“You guys look,” Pidge called from a bit further ahead, pointing to a large black and white photo containing an almost class looking photo, rows and rows of children stood together, all of varying age, with five older adults stood on either side of the group. Underneath the large frame was a metal plate, engraved with _Altea Home for Children (1923)._ “I think this is an orphanage.”

 

Keith’s face seemed to screw up uncomfortably at her statement, looking around as if something was about to jump out and attack him. Shiro’s eyes seemed to dart to Keith, face showing obvious concern for the sensitive topic. The photos before them continued in a similar fashion, a picture of all the children in the orphanage each year, some disappearing and some new faces added each one. Finally they reached the more recent photos. “Wait, look!”

 

Pidge leaned close to one of the photos dated 1999, tapping a slender finger onto one of the caregivers, ginger mustache and hair extremely familiar, sitting in a chair, with a small pale baby sitting in his lap, gummy smile on display. “That’s Coran, and look, that looks like King Alfor and Allura,” Hunk pointed out, bringing their attention to a grinning Alfor, silver hair pulled back into a low ponytail, arm resting on a young Allura’s shoulder, looking around the age of 5.

 

“Shiro is that you?” Keith glances towards Shiro and back to the kid standing close to Allura, front two teeth missing in a proud grin, baseball bat resting on his shoulder.

 

“Actually, yeah, that… is,” Shiro quirked an eyebrow, moving his gaze onto the other photos that proceeded.

 

Some of the children from before seemed to have gotten adopted but Shiro, Allura, Coran, Alfor, and the child Coran had been holding remained. Said kid was now into their toddler years, standing besides a taller Shiro and Allura, hand clutching onto each of their own, light violet eyes gazing up to Shiro in curiousity, dark baby hairs beginning to grow out and curl around his face. “That’s me, I think,” Keith mumbled, gesturing to the child.

 

Lance’s eyesight got snagged on one of the pictures two years ahead, everyone from before still in the photo, all looking slightly older, including the now probably three or four year old Keith, stood with a grumpy look on his face, arms crossed, eyes squinted into a glare pointed at another child his age across from him, clinging to Allura’s dress and sticking his tongue out back at Keith. “What the- guys I think… I think this is me.”

 

Before any of them could go forward to look at the photo Lance was staring at in disbelief, a small voice called out, “Fourty-eight, Fourty-nine, Fifty! Ready or not here I come!”

 

They all spun towards one of the doorways when a light skinned child crossed through its threshold, hands pulling away from their eyes to reveal a familiar shade of mauve. The kid’s dark locks were cut much shorter than his grown self, but still long enough that his bangs hung slight over his eyes as he ran towards them. He looked up in surprise, stuttering to a stop when his gaze settles on them.

 

“Uh… he can’t see us right?” Lance questions, glancing to everyone for answers, but all of them seemed to be frozen like if they didn’t move he wouldn’t be able to see them.

 

“I can see you,” The kid replied, raising a skeptical eyebrow at them.

 

“What the-” Lance begins to say, only for Hunk to slap a hand over his mouth and give him a dirty look.

 

“Are you guys here to adopt?” He asks, surprisingly articulate for his age, which seemed to be somewhere around five.

 

“No, we-” Lance starts again, but this time it’s Shiro’s hand that is suddenly covering his mouth and his brown eyes giving him _The Look_ before turning back to the child.

 

“Yes, we’re here to adopt,” Shiro smiled, crouching down to his height. “What’s your name?”

 

He stared at them suspiciously for a few moments before cautiously replying, “Keith, what’s your name?”

 

“Sh- Takashi,” Shiro replies.

 

“That’s what Mr. Coran calls my foster brother when he sneaks in to steal cookies from the pantry before dinner,” Keith replies, a skeptical tone still lacing his voice.

 

Shiro laughs, his head tipping a little bit. “They must be really good cookies.”

 

“They’re alright, I don’t see why he would risk having more chores just for a cookie,” Keith shrugs. “What are their names?”

 

“Oh, that’s Pidge, that’s Hunk,” Shiro turns to them and points, casually skipping over the older Keith who is stood with an odd look on his face watching the interaction before him. “Tha-”

 

“Who's he?” Keith cuts him off, pointing to Lance, making him start from suddenly being addressed by the mini-Keith.

 

“Oh, that’s Lance.”

 

“Lance?” Keith tilts his head. “That’s my best friend's name. Speaking of which,” He straightens like he suddenly remembered something really important, raising one finger. “I was in the middle of a rather competitive game of hide and seek. You guys can come if you want, maybe we can find Mr. Alfor and Mr. Coran on the way so they can give you a tour. There are a lot of you though, are you all looking to adopt, like are you all in some weird… big relationship?”

 

This Keith was definitely more of a talker than the Keith they were familiar with, making them all wonder if their Keith, when he was this age, had been just as friendly, and if so, what had happened. “Uh,” Shiro begins.

 

“Actually, I don’t wanna know,” Keith shakes his head, causing the short dark locks on his forehead to become messy. He grabs Shiro’s Galra hand without a second thought, beginning to tug him up the stairs. “I have to find Lance, c’mon.”

 

Shiro glances back at them in surprise, who all share a similar expression as they follow the two of them up the creaky stairs and into another long hallway of doors. “Just so you know, you can’t adopt me,” Keith states matter-of-factly as they continue on down the hallway, some doors open to show separate rooms, a few with children in bunk beds or multiple seperate beds and children's toys laying about.

 

“Oh? Why not?”

 

“Lance and I have a pact where we can’t get adopted unless it’s together,” Keith lets go of Shiro’s hand, turning towards them and starting to walk backwards. A gleeful smile spread across his face, showing a gap in his teeth where one of his canines would’ve been. “When we turn ten, we’re running away. Shiro has this book of big beautiful cities in the world and we’re going to Chicago! We’re gonna build a treehouse to live in and never worry about adults or adult things again, we won’t need parents or caregivers ever again!”

 

Keith’s smile only continued to grow, a small giggle slipping through his parted lips before his eyes widened and he stopped quickly, pointing a finger at all of them. “But you can’t tell anyone! Especially not Mr. Alfor or Mr. Coran, oh oh, and definitely not Shiro or Allura! They’ll stop us, probably even separate the two of us! They already talked about sending Lance to another home, and we just… we can’t have that happen.”

 

Keith’s ramble finally stopped looking up at them with a hardened expression, scarily intimidating for a five year old. “We won’t tell on you guys,” Hunk assures, a small playful smile on his lips. This small Keith was extremely adorable.

 

“Pinky promise, all of you,” He demands, thrusting out a small pinky. One by one, mini-Keith made his rounds, sealing the promise from each them with a curl of his little pinky, Lance almost squealed at how cute he was when he did it, his expression so set and serious. Finally though, Keith reached… Keith. Mirrored eyes meet only for the smaller Keith’s face to scrunch up in distaste. “I don’t like your hair.”

 

“Pffft,” Lance hissed before doubling over in laughter, everyone following his lead while Keith was left gawking at his younger self. “Y-you just got burned b-by yourself!”

 

The smaller Keith looked at all of them in confusion while their Keith simply glared at Lance. “Piss off.”

 

“Piss… off?” The smaller Keith echoed back in question.

 

“Ah! Keith! Don’t say that!”

 

“Sorry!”

“Sorry!” Both Keith’s replied in sync.

 

“That was… weird,” Pidge mumbled.

 

“Ugh, we have to find Lance, you guys are being distracting,” Younger Keith grumbled, crossing his arms and stomping ahead in frustration.

 

“Ah, there's the Keith we all know and love,” Lance teased, throwing an arm around Keith, who shrugged it off, glowering at him.

 

They finally approached a cracked door with two sheets of paper taped to it. One read, in messy blue and red handwriting ‘Keith and Lance’s room!’, the other below it reading ‘Do not enter (Especially you Shiro!! (•̀o•́)ง)’. The angry face made Lance snort. Keith pushed the door open to reveal a heavily decorated children’s room, bunk beds in one corner, one bed covered in a blue duvet, while the other was red. The walls were covered in a myriad to posters, banners, and flags. Hanging from the ceiling were toy models of airplanes, spaceships, and a replica of the solar system. The floor was messy like you imagined any child’s bedroom floor to be, covered in sports balls, toy robots and stuffed animals, and a surprisingly amount of books. Keith turned back to them, holding one finger up to his lips in a sign to be quiet, turning back to look about the room for Lance.

 

He first checked the closet, then in a toy box, and finally, flopping down to the ground and lifting the bed skirt up and letting out a shout. “Found you! You always hide there!”

 

A small brown skinned boy shimmied his way from under the bunk bed, finally revealing to them the young Lance, who stood up beside Keith, ironically, at least three inches shorter than him. His small hand reaches to push his long brown, soft ringlets, out of his face, surprising everyone to see that the two boys seemed to swap hair when they had gotten older, Lance’s hair reaching a little past his shoulders, wild curls that none of them anticipated Lance to have. His shorter hair cut seemed to tame them now, but when they were as long as they were on the smaller Lance, they were unleashed in adorable spirals. “There's only so many places I can hide now that we can’t go into Shiro’s room anymore,” Lance pouted, voice soft and timid.

 

“Doesn’t mean you can’t sneak in,” Keith smirked. “Extra points if you do, next time.”

 

“Deal,” Lance smirked along, nodding. “Oh, yeah, what is this? I found it under your pillow when I was looking for a place to hide.”

 

Everyone in the room stilled when Lance brought up Keith’s familiar blade from The Blades of Marmora. The younger Keith’s eyes widen, quickly snatching it from Lance’s hands. “It’s nothing, don’t look under my pillow.”

 

Lance looked confused and slightly hurt. “What? Why? What is that? I thought we promised to never keep secrets from each other.”

 

Keith’s glare softened at the sight of Lance’s frown, flipping the blade in his much too small hands. “I-I don’t know what it is, I’ve had it ever since I was born, Coran had it locked away, said it was dangerous but it was the only thing left with me when I was delivered here, so he kept it for when I got older. He doesn’t know I have it. I think it’s a knife? Don’t tell anyone I took it.”

 

“Well, yeah, I’m not an idiot,” Lance rolled his eyes. His gaze twitches and snags on the group of people near the door, making him jump back. “W-who are they?”

 

Lance manages to sneak behind Keith, hiding shyly, peeking at them from around Keith’s arm. “They’re here to adopt, I was gonna take them to find Coran or Alfor, but I had to find you first,” Keith spoke to him softly, trying to take one of his small hands from where they were clutching his shirt.

 

“Did you tell them-” Lance begins, in a whisper, eyebrows tilted upwards in worry.

 

“Yes, I told them we weren’t up for adoption,” Keith reassured. “They’re not gonna hurt you.”

 

Lance hummed unsure, but let his hand be scooped by my Keith’s pale one, twining their small fingers together in a sight that made Hunk wanna squeal, it was just so damn cute. Keith looked back up to them, nodding. “Okay, now I’ll take you to see Mr. Coran or Alfor.”

 

As the two younger versions of Keith and Lance lead them back down the long corridor, hands still linked, Lance couldn’t help the question nagging at his mind slipping out. “So… how did you guys end up here?”

 

His breath is knocked out of him as Keith’s elbow jabs his ribs, giving him a dirty _dirty_ look. “What the hell, rule number one about orphans, don’t ask them why they’re orphans,” Keith hisses.

 

Younger Keith watches the two of them closely, eyebrows dipping down like he was trying to work out a hard math problem. “I personally don’t really mind, honestly. I was just left here when I was a baby, kind of like those movies you see, where the kid is left on the doorsteps, that was me, not very interesting,” He shrugs, but squeezes Lance’s hand who stares ahead, ignoring the conversation. “Lance though…”

 

“My papa tried to burn down the house with me and my Mama inside because he thought I was a devil child or something,” Lance speaks as if he was just telling them all what he had for lunch, shrugging. “Mama died in the fire, Papa went to jail. Abuela died a few years ago, and none of my family wanted me so now I’m here.”

 

Everyone stares at the younger McClain in shock, mouths slightly parted, including Lance himself. He could never imagine his own father doing that to him, it hurt his heart to hear himself talk so casually about something so devastating. His younger self staring almost blankly ahead as he spoke, a look Shiro sometimes got. Shiro himself was absolutely heartbroken, he knew the look, he knew the amount of pain he felt when he had that look, enough pain that it felt too big in his own grown body, he couldn’t imagine being so young and having to deal with that.

 

The younger Keith smiled softly, knocking his elbow into Lance’s side softly. “Hey, but we have each other now right? We don’t need anyone else. Everything you went through got us together.”

Lance blinks back to Earth before a small grin parts his lips, giving Keith a nod. “You’re right, I could get through anything with you by my side.”

 

“We could conquer the whole universe!” Keith exclaimed, raising his free fist into the air.

 

“I don’t think we’d conquer it… I think we’d save it,” Lance replied thoughtfully, making everyone’s eyebrows quirk in shock at what he’d said, ironically enough, stating just exactly what their older selves were doing.

 

“You’re right. We’d save the whole universe! All of the aliens would love you!” Keith yammers in excitement, eyes wild with imagination as he spoke.

 

“Too bad for them, I only love you, they gotta look somewhere else,” Lance replied quickly, surprising all of them with the weight of his words, especially for a five year old.

 

“Awe, Lanz, I love you too,” Keith cooed, leaning in and giving Lance a wet kiss to his cheek, making Lance groan and pull away, rubbing at his cheek.

 

“Ew, Keith, gross! I don’t want your cooties,” Lance continued to scrub at his cheek.

 

Keith smirked, walking backwards in front of them again, looking to Lance, hands tucked into his pockets. “Too late! You’ve definitely got all my cooties. You have for years. Remember that one time I was sick and accidently sneezed in your mouth when you were laughing and then got you sick too? We’ve been cootie buddies since, no take backsies!”

 

Lance pouted, crossing his arms in distaste but not disagreeing, making Keith smile triumphantly, looking back to the group of adults following behind them with varying faces of emotion, two of them with fond smiles, the shorter one smiling mischievously at the other Lance and weird haired guy, who both looked horrified and shocked. “I won.”

 

“Not everythings a competition,” Lance complains.

 

“Wow that’s a first coming from Lance,” Older Keith whispers to himself, but it’s still loud enough for their Lance to hear, earning him a punch to the arm.

 

“Hey!” A voice called from the end of the hall as they neared the stairs, making them turn towards the small bit of hallway past them that led to a quaint window bench, where a young Allura and Shiro lounged.

 

“What are you two doing?” Allura stands, hands on her hips, looking down at the two smaller children. She was probably around the age of ten, long silver hair in long braided pigtails, resting over the beginnings of her green overall shorts.

 

“Where is your Papa, ‘Lura,” Lance asks, looking up to her innocently. Allura raises an eyebrow at the two.

 

“He was in the kitchen with my Dad last time I saw him, why?” Allura presses on.

 

“Hey Squirt!” Shiro suddenly emerged from behind Allura, flicking Keith’s forehead lightly, making him glare up at him. “Blue,” He addresses Lance with a smile, ruffling his hair. “What are you two getting up to?”

 

“None of your business,” Keith replied, “And don’t call me Squirt.”

 

“Ooh, your attitude is so scary,” Shiro chastised, a smirk on his face as he leans over Keith. “How are you today, bud?” He turns to Lance again who only nods quietly back at Shiro. “Still being shy? I know I’m bigger than you, but I’m your friend, Lance. I’ve known you for two years, since you were a little tot.”

 

Lance shrugs back, leaning more into Keith, averting his eyes down. Shiro sighs but nods anyways, giving him a smile. “That’s okay, take your time, I’m not trying to pressure you.”

 

“I think they’re up to something,” Allura accuses.

 

“Are not,” Keith shouts back.

 

“Are too!”

 

“Are n-” Shiro lets out a loud groan, throwing his head back in misery.

 

“God, if you’re up there, please spare me from this home, I’m so sick of hear them bicker all the time, please, end me,” Shiro speaks up to the ceiling, making Allura and Keith roll their eyes at him. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance let out small snickers and snorts watching how casual and fun younger Shiro was in contrast to Strict Dad Shiro that they knew.

 

“You’re so dramatic,” Keith complains.

 

“You are pretty dramatic,” Lance quietly agrees, making Shiro turn to him with wide eyes.

 

“You’ve turned against me too now! I hate you all,” Shiro pouts, crossing his arms and turning his back to them.

 

Allura lets out a sigh, looking lazily at Shiro before looking back to Keith and Lance. “I don’t know what you guys are up to, but if you shave any more of my Barbie’s hair I’ll kill you both,” She threatens briefly, spinning back to Shiro, trying to talk him out of the silent treatment he was now giving her.

“Wow, Young Shiro is pretty funny,” Hunk muses, getting hums of agreement from everyone and a small smile and the roll of eyes from Shiro.

 

Following the two children down the stairs and back past the wall of photos, now noticing more individual photos of the children scattered about the wall. One of Shiro batting in a baseball game, another with Allura wearing science goggles, leaning over tubes, with a science fair in the background, another following with her holding up a 1st place ribbon, large smile. Then there are the photos of Lance and Keith, one of them from when they were younger, asleep in a pile of blankets, hands interlocked, another of them both standing in capes, blowing in the wind, hands on their hips and large grins, the pictures continued as they grew all in varying subjects. It was weird seeing this life that their younger selves led, it only made Lance think about how much different his life would’ve been if he’d be raised like this, he imagines living in a foster home like this wouldn’t be much different from his large family he was used to, but it’s his rough beginning that would- already seems to have changed him so much compared to who he was in his timeline. Keith on the other hand, was thinking something similar, how much different his life would’ve been if he had grown up with a friend like Lance, or with even Lance at his side like this Keith has, how much more confident he seems already with him having been in his life. If he remembers correctly, he didn’t have any friends when he was this age, all of the other kids in his orphanages staying away from him because he was quiet and ‘creepy’. If only he had one friend like Lance around when he as growing up… he would probably be so much different.

 

Keith pushes open the pocket door that leads into the kitchen, stepping in with everyone to reveal a slightly younger looking Coran being cradled from behind by King Alfor himself, who leaned over his shoulder, a soft smile gracing his lips as he spoke to Coran, pressing a brief kiss to the mustached man’s lips, not yet realizing the two children that had snuck into the room.

 

“Ew,” Lance whispered. Coran jumped at the sound, making Alfor shoot away from him, trying to casually scratching at his head.

 

“Oh! Boys!” Coran squeaks, letting out a forced laugh. “I didn’t hear you two come in, always sneaky aren’t you.”

 

“I knew they were dating before the war,” Lance whispers to Hunk, who nods back in agreement, a small twinge of sadness in his knowing smile. At least he still had Alfor with him in this life.

 

“We all know you and Mr. Alfor are married,” Keith casually points out as he hops onto one of the bar stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen, Lance crawling onto one next to him. “You can kiss in front of us, that’s what people do when they love each other right? That’s why I kiss Lance sometimes.”

 

Coran looks at Keith in surprise, glancing back at Alfor with a nervous laugh. “I mean, yes, when two people do love each other, sometime they can kiss each other to show it, but maybe you’re still a little two young to kiss Lan-”

“Nope,” Keith cuts him off while reaching for one of the carrots on the cutting board in front of Coran, chomping into one with a satisfying crunch. “I wuv him, I’ma mawwy Wance when we get owder because dats what people do when they wuv each other, just wike you and Mr. Alfor,” He says around a mouth of carrot. If Keith’s older self was also eating a carrot at this moment, he’d be choking on it right now.

 

“Okay,” Alfor cuts in, a fond smile on his as he looks at the two boys. “What are do you two need?”

 

“We found guests who are here to adopt, we brought them to you,” Keith replies.

 

Alfor’s eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. “Where are they now?”

 

Keith gives him a look, pointing behind him, turning in his seat. “They’re right-”

 

But when he turns around, the five people he’d dragged through the orphanage were no longer there, seeming to have disappeared right into thin air. “They were… they were right there. They must’ve left I guess…”

  
Alfor and Coran looked at each other worriedly, silently agreeing to add better locks to the doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More stuff for this AU that I couldn't include in this little timeline:  
> -When Lance and Keith are eight, Hunk Garrett moves in next door to the orphanage, they become the best of buds.  
> -When Lance and Keith do turn ten, they do run away, knapsack full of three granola bars, Lance's starwars blanket, a Dr. Suess book, and 20 dollars they steal from Shiro. They end up making it three blocks before Lance starts crying because he misses Coran and Hunk.  
> -When Keith is thirteen and Shiro turns eighteen, Alfor and Coran decide to give them the choice to be adopted by them, they quickly agree. Alfor and Coran offer to adopt Lance, but Lance, with a huge gay aching crush on his best friend and can't stand the thought of dating his 'brother', refuses. Keith is hurt because they promised they wouldn't get adopted without each other and if they did get adopted it'd be together, he almost turns down Coran and Alfor because of it. But Lance convinces him it's alright, it's not like he's going anywhere, he'll just have a family now. Coran and Alfor still foster Lance so he has some sense of family, even without being fully adopted.  
> -When Keith and Lance are fifteen and Allura and Shiro twenty, Alfor dies in a tragic car accident. Everyone is devistated, Coran is heartbroken but still tries to care for his children who are also grieving also while managing the orphanage and the rest of the kids on his own. Allura gets angry most of the time but sometimes at night you can find her and Shiro crying in each others arms in the dim light of a lamp in Shiro's room. Shiro tries to be strong for Allura, Keith, and Lance but he's hurting, Alfor was a father to him, he raised him since he was a baby, it's extremely difficult. Keith feels cheated and angry, he just got a dad only for him to be ripped away from him, he gets everything out in explosions, blowing up at Lance and throwing things, one time he accidently pushes Lance and sends him into a panic attack. Keith feels bad for WEEKS, he's scared to touch Lance and blames himself for it constantly, comparing himself to Lance's dad. Lance is similar to Shiro, trying to be strong for everyone else, but he cries himself to sleep knowing that one of the only people who has reinforced the fact that good fathers exist in the world was dead.  
> -Allura and Shiro start to work for the orphanage soon after Alfor's passing to help their dad, Coran. Matt joins the caregiver team as well once him and Shiro start dating. This also bring Pidge around a lot as well, adding her to their friend group.  
> -Fin~


	4. The Alteans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew gets to watch a musical with themselves as the cast. And lucky for them it's one of the best damn musicals of all time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oki doki, this chappie is pretty long and i wrote this pretty late so sorry for mistakes in grammer, tenses, and spelling, c'est la vie. 
> 
> also i tried to make this sort of seem like my style mixed with screenplay writing style so if it seems straight the point and simple, its bc it is lmao. hope that doesn't bother anyone
> 
> this chapter was rly self indulgent but ive wanted to write it ever since i first saw heathers, so this chapter also includes illustrations i made of keith and lance as JD and Veronica as u go along. i hope both people who have seen and haven't seen heather the musical can enjoy this!

 

Through another spout of dizzying darkness, the group regained consciousness with the help of the smell of popcorn. “God, I don’t think whatever weird transportation thing we’re using is settling well with my stomach,” Hunk moans, taking his time to right himself by leaning against Lance. 

 

“I wonder where we are now,” Pidge pondered, scanning the room they were now in it looked something similar to the concession for a movie only… fancier? The carpets were a dark red and the signs for the food options lit up to look like an old fashion theatre sign. In the distance a chorus of harmonic singing roared out of the silence, bringing notice to the steady beat they hadn’t noticed before. 

 

“You guys! We’re at a musical theatre right now!” Lance suddenly exclaimed, holding up a glossy pamphlet reading ‘Theatrical Outfit Musical Theatre’. 

 

“So?” Keith questioned, raising an eyebrow. 

 

“So!? I grew up a musical theatre geek, it’s one of the things I missed while we were in the Garrison, if we’re about to watch a musical, then fuck yeah!” Lance raised a fist into the air, pumping joyously. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, let’s go see.”

 

They didn’t have much of a choice but to follow Lance as they pulled on all of their arms, pushing them all through a set of grand doors that revealed the view of a large stage with rows and rows of seats full of people in front of it. Stood upon the stage seemed to be three girls and three boys; the three girls all dressed in matching plaid skirts, blazers, and knee high socks, shaking their hips as they sang towards one of the boys dressed in similar attire as them, only paired with jeans. 

 

“This is Heathers! Hunk, Heathers!” Lance jumped, turning towards his best friend who nodded back at his obvious excitement. Heathers had been Lance’s favorite musical since Hunk could remember, he’d seen more than enough one man renditions of it from Lance in their childhood. “Wait… holy shit that’s Allura! And Pidge… ugh, and Nyma.”

 

“Oh my god, Lance, look,” Hunk’s eyes widen, pointing to the boy dressed in blue, currently being sang to by Allura, Pidge, and Nyma. 

 

“That’s me,” Lance breathlessly replied, watching him on stage stumble backwards as Allura points a manicured finger into his chest. That was him up there on that stage playing his dream role, playing the role everyone told him he’d never play because he was a  _ boy.  _ News flash, most plays were completely men back in the day, plus, so what if he was a boy, he looked good in a skirt! “Holy shit! I made it! I did it! I got the role!”

 

With a victory jump, Lance settled back onto the ground, a face splitting grin on his face. “We have to get good seats, no one can see us so we can steal any of the open ones!”

 

“I have no idea what’s going on right now,” Pidge shook her head, but followed the jittery Lance down the darkened aisle and to five conveniently empty seats all grouped together near the front. Allura, Pidge, and Nyma, sang one more harmonised note before the spotlight pointed on them dimmed, leaving only Lance and the surroundings around him visible. 

 

“You shouldn’t have bowed down to the swatch dogs and diet coke heads. They’re going to crush that boy,” A kid, who was sitting off to the side of the stage, book in hand, clad in dark clothes began to speak, making the Lance on stage turn towards him in confusion. 

 

“I’m sorry, what?” Lance replied back. 

 

The boy finally looked up from his place on the ground, rising to stand in front of Lance. “Oh no. Please tell me I’m hallucinating right now, Hunk. Please tell me Keith isn’t JD.”

 

“Uh... Keith isn’t JD?” Hunk pathetically lied, looking sympathetically towards his friend, both of them knowing how Lance’s role and Keith’s role in the play… interacted to say the least. 

 

“What’s so bad about me being… JC?” Keith butt in.

 

“It’s JD, and,” Lance groaned, running his hands down his face and sinking down into his seat in self-pity. “Our roles… they’re… complimentary. You’ll see I guess.”

 

“You’ve clearly got a soul, you just need to work hard keeping it clean. ‘We’re all born marked for evil’,” The Keith on stage began to speak, waving his book about as he began to walk away from Lance.

 

“Okay, don’t just quote Baudelaire at me and then walk away. Excuse me? I didn’t catch your name,” Lance called after him. Keith smirked over his shoulder to the boy in blue.

 

“I didn’t throw it.”

 

Lance gapped out at the audience as Keith continued to walk to the other side of the stage, flipping through his book. 

 

“Who does that guy in the jacket think he is anyways, Bo Diddley?” A new voice arose as a spotlight lit up two guys standing on left stage. 

 

“Matt,” Pidge softly whispered, leaning forward in her chair as Shiro and Matt stood there in red letterman jackets, arms crossed and staring at Keith. 

 

“Lance is into his act, no doubt,” Shiro replied to Matt’s comment, lips curling into an annoyed snarl. 

 

“Let’s kick his ass,” Matt shouted. 

 

“Nah, we’re seniors man, we’re too old for that shit,” Shiro shook his head down at the shorter man, but Matt was already walking up to Keith, wrapping his arm around him, putting him in a headlock. 

 

“Hey! Sweetheart! What did you boyfriend say when you told him you were moving to Sherwood, Ohio?” Matt snarled at Keith, who stayed still and blank faced. 

 

Shiro walked up to the other side of Keith, smacking his head roughly as he did. “My buddy Matt just asked you a question.”

 

Keith’s face split into a grin, a soft laugh falling out of his mouth at the joke happening around him. “Hey Shiro, doesn’t the cafeteria have a no fags allowed rule?”

 

“Ooh, yikes,” Pidge hisses nexted to them as she watched her brother say such a crude word. 

 

Keith snaps his book shut, shrugging. “They seem to have an open door policy for assholes though.”

 

Matt narrowed his eyes before turning to Shiro. “Hold his arms.” 

 

A song begins to start with rapid piano as Matt and Shiro begin to try and fight Keith on stage. Keyword: Try. The kids watching in the background begin to sing a number of ‘Holy shits’ as Keith uses his book to knock both Matt and Shiro to the ground.

 

“I’m not gonna lie, seeing Keith beat Shiro up is… pretty amusing,” Pidge muttered to Hunk with a mischievous grin. 

 

As they continue to fight and the Holy-Shitting comes to a stop, Keith and Shiro go into a self-made slow motion while Lance steps forward. “Why when you see boys fighting does it look so horrible yet feel so…right? I shouldn’t watch this crap, that’s not who I am, but with this kid,” Lance sings, eyes drifting to Keith as he goes into punch Shiro in the jaw, briefly looking back to the audience with a playful smirk. “Damn!”

 

“Ah fuck, so that’s what you meant when you said we have a-” Keith starts. 

 

“Yep,” Lance quickly cuts him off, eyes still stuck on the performance before him. He was watching himself play his dream role, Keith as JD or not, this was still a dream come true, no way he was missing even one part of it. 

 

“Hey, mister no-named-kid, so who might you be and could you fight for me?” Lance sang, stepping closer towards to the pair of fighting boys, Matt splayed on the ground holding his crotch where Keith had landed a kick right to the knads. Lance continued to sing with a voice none of the rest of the group can honestly say they expected or knew that Lance had. Finally, slowly Keith and Shiro began to move again, Keith’s fist inching closer to his face while Shiro’s hands slowly raised in an attempt to block his face but failing. 

 

“Let them drive us underground, I don't care how far. You can set my broken bones and I know CPR,” Lance belted, ending with his hands close to his heart and a dreamy gaze on Keith as his fist finally connected with Shiro.

 

Lance finished the song as Keith grabbed, a now standing, Matt’s head and began to headbutt him repeatedly. Quite impressive if you asked any of the group watching, even Shiro himself, who was finding this scene pretty funny, could admit that if that was a real fight, that move was damn hardcore. The lights dimmed as Matt began to yell, Shiro hauling him up to his feet and walk off towards the side of the stage. 

 

The team continues to watch, all of them now thoroughly enticed by the play, as the scene changes to Lance’s house and then onto a 7-Eleven where Keith and Lance meet once more, giving Keith a, if you asked the man himself, rather weird singing number. The scene switches back to Shiro and Matt, now accompanied by Alfor and Coran, who tease them almost as if they were grown versions of Shiro and Matt’s characters before finally moving onto the party. 

 

A tipsy Lance stumbles into center stage, slurring his speech. “Okay, okay, so it’s shot and then lime and then salt?”

 

Nyma shakes her head. “No salt then-”

 

“You’re doing it wrong!” Allura shouts. 

 

“Wait really?” Lance exclaims in disbelief, raising his arms in the air. “‘Cause I feel great!”

 

Lance continued on the song they’d been singing before the brief bit of dialogue. Hunk showed up to the party, shyly approaching a drunk Shiro. “God, they just had to make  _ me _ Martha, didn’t they,” Hunk groans in his seat. 

 

“Hey Martha is one of the best characters!” Lance elbows him lightly. 

 

“U-Uh hi Shiro, I wasn’t going to come, but since you took the time to write that sweet note…” Hunk trails off, getting a weird look from Shiro. 

 

“What note? Why’d you gotta be so weird all of the time? People wouldn’t hate you so much if acted normal,” Shiro slurred, taking the bottle of cider from Hunk’s hands and beginning to chug, full on high school frat boy style, only to spray it out of his mouth moments later, looking at Hunk in shock and disgust. “There’s no alcohol in here. Are you trying to poison me?” 

 

Later into the scene, Allura, Pidge, and Nyma began to target Hunk, pulling out a pinata with the words ‘Hunk Dumptruck’ pasted on the side, making all the party-goers snort in drunk laughter. “What’s your damage, Allura?!” Lance yelled after having played tug of war with the pinata. 

 

“What’s going on?” Hunk asks Lance.

 

“Listen, just go home, I’ll explain everything later,” Lance presses, pushing back on Hunk’s shoulders. 

 

“No, I was just going to-”

 

“Hunk, just go home,” Lance pleaded, making Hunk glance at all of the beady eyes watching them before rushing off stage. “Well, we gave it a shot, I’m resigning my commission from Lipgloss Gestapo. I’m going back to civilian life.” 

 

“Ha, no!” Allura calls, grabbing Lance’s shoulder and spinning him around back towards her with a devilish grin, grabbing Lance’s face between a sharp nailed grip. “You don’t get to be a nobody. Come Monday, you’re an ex-somebody. Not even the losers will touch you now! Transfer to Washington, transfer to Jefferson, no one at Westerberg is going to let you play their reindeer games.”

“She really is a mythic bitch,” Lance muses from besides Hunk, a pleased grin on his face to see how well Allura played the role of Heather Chandler. 

 

As Allura releases Lance, he begins to sway, pressing a hand to his stomach, before turning and puking on her. Allura let out a high pitched scream. “I raised you up from nothing. What’s my thanks? I get paid in puke?” Allura yelled at Lance. 

 

“Oh, lick it up, baby! Lick, it, up!” Lance mocked back, earning cheers from the audience. 

 

Allura leaned forward, getting into Lance’s face with a snarl. “I know who I’m eating lunch with on Monday. Do you?”

 

With a few glance around himself, Lance finds everyone looking away from him in disgust, with one last look, he darts off stage, leaving the rest of the kids to scream and party. 

 

“Oh god, here we go,  _ the  _ part,” Lance moaned as he watched himself, alone, step out onto stage. 

 

“The demon queen of high school has decreed it, she says Monday eight a.m. I’ll be deleted. They’ll hunt me down in study hall, stuff and mount me on the wall, thirty hours to live, how shall I spend them?” Lance sang out into the crowd, beginning to walk across the stage. “Well, I don’t have to stay and die like cattle. I could change my name and ride up to Seattle. But I don’t own a motorbike- Wait!”

 

The space behind Lance sends a small glow on an undressing figure on a platform on the stage. With a dirty smirk, Lance turns back to the crowd. “Here’s an option that I like, spend these thirty hours getting freaky! Yeah! I need it hard, I’ma dead boy walking! I’m in yard, I’ma dead boy walking. Before they punch my clock, I’m snappin’ off your window lock. Got no time to knock, I’ma dead boy walking!”

 

As Lance sings he makes his way up to the platform the figure now lays back on, as he pretends to step through said window, they shoot up, spotlight and voice revealing a surprised Keith. “Woah, Lance! What are you doing in my room?”

 

“Shhh,” Lance smirks, playfully pressing his finger against Keith’s lips, who stares back with wide eyes. “Sorry but I really had to wake you, see I’ve decided I must ride you till I break you.”

 

“Oh my god,” Shiro whispers, eyes wide, but nothing compared to the state of a red faced, mouth gaping Keith who watched the scene in front of him. Lance simply blushed and refused to make any eye contact with any of them. 

 

“Uh, you may want to close your eyes soon, Pidge,” Hunk warns. 

 

“Oh my god, do they fuck?!” 

“Pidge!” Shiro chastieds. 

 

“Please tell me we don’t,” Keith finally croaks.

 

“Uh,” Hunk meekly whines. 

 

“Oh no.”

 

“Allura’s said I’ve got to go, you’re my last meal on death row. Shut your mouth and loose them tidy-whities! C’mon!” Lance belts out, stepping forward and ripping open his own blazer. With a hint of hesitation, the Keith on stage steps forward to snake an arm around Lance’s waist. “Tonight I’m yours I’m your dead boy walking! Get on all fours,” Lance grabs Keith’s shoulders, pushing him to his knees in front of him, grabbing his face to look up to him. “Kiss this dead boy walking! It’s cool you know the drill, I’m hot and pissed and on the kill, bow down to the will of a dead boy walking!”

 

Suddenly the song changes to soft piano as Lance also sinks to his knees in front of Keith, hands still trailing down his face. “And you know, you know, you know, it’s cause you’re beautiful. You say you’re numb inside, but I can’t agree. So the world unfair, keep it locked out there, in here it’s beautiful! Let’s make this beautiful!” Lance shrugs himself quickly out of his blazer, leaving him in his white button down shirt. 

 

“That works for me- Hmph!” Keith begins to say only for Lance to forcefully grab both sides of his face and smash their lips together. Hunk moves to put a hand over Pidge’s eyes as Lance crawls onto Keith’s lap, hands roaming each other, tugging hair. Lance breaks their heated make out briefly to pull of Keith’s shirt before reattaching their lips, pushing them completely down onto the floor.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lance catches sight of Keith’s face, which all-though modified, eyes wide and hand covering his mouth, trying desperately to shrink in on himself and hopefully disappear forever, looked at least a small part… intrigued? His eyes followed the Lance on stage with deadly focus as he kissed down the JD-Keith’s chest. 

 

“Yeah! Full steam ahead, take this dead boy walking!” Lance enthusiastically sang. 

 

“How’d you find my address?” Keith nervously sang back.

 

“Let’s break the bed, rock this dead boy walking!” 

 

“I think you tore my mattress!”

 

“No sleep tonight for you, better chug that mountain dew,” Lance sang, suddenly serious.

 

“Okay, okay,” Keith squeaked, nodding feebly. 

 

“Get your ass in gear, make this whole town disappear!”

 

“Okay, okay!” Keith most enthusiastically agreed this time. 

 

“Slap me, pull my hair!” Lance demanded, slapping Keith, who retaliated with pulling Lance’s hair back roughly. “Touch me there and there and there, and no more talking!” Keith ripped open Lance’s shirt, revealing the tan boys bare chest. “Love this dead boy walking!”

 

“I never want to see Lance and Keith makeout ever again,” Shiro mumbled as the song finished and the spotlights disappeared, masking the people on stage in darkness. 

 

“Agreed,” Pidge mumbled in disgust, meanwhile both of the aforementioned boys remained in a state of shocked silence.

 

The play continues into a nightmare that Lance has about Allura, continuing on to Keith and Lance’s morning after. Lance somehow convinces a very confused Keith that he must go to Allura’s house and apologize. 

 

“Allura? Allura!” Lance calls out. 

 

“What?” Allura groans from off to the left of the stage. 

 

“It’s Lance, I’m here to apologize.”

 

“Hope you brought knee-pads, bitch!” Allura calls, sitting up on her ‘bed’. “Fix me a prairie oyster and I’ll think about it.”

 

“Prairie oyster? What’s in that?” Lance mumbled, eyes scanning the contents of Allura’s kitchen. Keith hands Lance a cup, who blindly takes it. “Thank you. Uh, okay, vinegar… raw egg-”

 

“Hot sauce, worcestershire sauce,  salt and pepper,” Keith easily lists off, grabbing the ingredients as he does so.

 

“You sure know your hangover cures.”

 

Keith grimaces slightly. “My dad trained me well.”  

 

Lance lets out a laugh. “Here’s my revenge! I’ll hock a flemglobber in her prairie oyster and she’ll never know,” He mischievously says, beginning to hock disgustingly, spitting into the cup. “Ew.”

 

Keith turns back to Lance, holding up a bottle of cleaner with a smirk. “I’m more of a no rust build up man myself.”

 

Lance scoffed. “Don’t be a dick, that stuff would kill her.”

 

“Thus ending her hangover. I say we go with big blue,” Keith continues on, pouring the cleaner into a cup, holding it up to admire it. 

 

“She’d never drink anything that looked like that,” Lance shook his head. 

 

“Yeah you’re right,” Keith mumbles, almost disappointed, moving to pour it down the drain but his hand stuttering, stopping and pulling it back to his chest instead, looking back to Lance and pouring the contents of the glass into a spare mug. “So, we’ll put it in a mug. She won’t have any idea she’s drinking it.” 

 

“Forget it,” Lance shakes his head. 

 

“Oh c’mon, chicken! Bawk, bawk, bawk,” Keith teases. 

 

“No, you’re not funny,” Lance bites back, making Keith stop and set down the mug. Approaching Lance slowly, hands on his hips. 

 

“Hey, it was just a joke. I’m sorry,” Keith apologizes, leaning down to press a tender kiss onto Lance’s lips. Pidge erupts into a series of vomit noises. 

 

“We’ve only just begun, Pidgey,” Lance teases from around Hunk. 

 

“Don’t sound too excited,” Pidge shoots back, smirking. 

 

“I’m not excited,” Lance grumbles under his voice, pushing himself roughly back into his seat. 

 

“Prairie oyster! Chop chop!” Allura yells abruptly from side stage, making Lance and Keith slowly pull away from the slowly escalating kiss. 

 

“Coming Allura!” Lance calls, grabbing the mug sat next to the sink without glancing at the contents.

 

“That’s the mug that I- I mean- Keith put the cleaning stuff in,” The Keith beside Shiro gasps in outrage, sitting forward in his seat, clearly enraptured by the musical by now. “I’m-He’s not gonna just let Lance take it right?!”

 

“Lance, you just-” The Keith on stage starts. 

 

“I just what?” Lance questions.

 

Keith pauses. “Nevermind.”

 

“No fucking way!” Keith calls out in outrage at his own self. Hunk can’t help but snigger. 

 

“Okay?” Lance huffs a chuckle before turning to go to Allura. “Good morning, Allura.”

 

“Awe Lance, and Jesse James quelle surprise. Let’s get to it. Beg.” Allura states plainly, crossing her legs almost boredly. 

 

“Uh, okay, I think we both said a lot of thing we didn’t mean last night-”

 

“I would actually prefer if you would do this on your knees. In front of your boy-toy here,” Allura hums, glancing at Keith and back to Lance with a devious smile. 

 

“Okay, anyways. I’m really sorry,” Lance tries to begin again, ignoring Allura’s request, only for her to throw her head back in a laugh.

 

“Do I look like I’m kidding,” Allura chuckles. “Down.”

 

Keith frowns, turning his gaze away from the two of them as Lance slowly gets onto his knees in front of the white haired girl. Allura smirks, leaning down over Lance. “That’s better, but you’re still dead to me.”

 

She plucks the mug from Lance’s hands, making everyone in the crowd wait anxiously as she tips the contents back into her mouth. As soon as she pulls the mug away, Allura erupts into a series of coughs and gags, stumbling forward clutching her throat. Lance and Keith watch with wide eyes as Allura collapses onto the ground dramatically, body going limp. “Shit!” Keith exclaims. 

 

“Oh my god! Oh my god, don’t just stand there call 911!” Lance yells.

 

“It’s a little late for that,” Keith states blandly, staring at Allura unmoving on the ground as Lance tries to shake her awake. 

 

“Allura? Allura!? Oh my god, I just killed my best friend,” Lance collapsed on the floor beside her, eyes wide.

 

“And your worst enemy,” Keith points out.

 

“Same difference!” Lance yells in a panic. “The police are going to think that I did this on purpose. They’re going to have to send my SAT scores to San Quentin.”

 

“Unless,” Keith begins. “Look, she’s reading the Bell Jar.”

 

“Oh no,” Lance mumbles. 

 

“Oh yes,” Keith nods, staging the book in Allura dead hand. “You can fake her handwriting, make her sound deep, something like this: I hid pain in my path, like Sylvia Plath. My problems were myriad.”

 

“I was having my period,” Lance mocks, making Keith stare at him for a moment only for him to burst into laughter at his own joke. He lets out a few more bubbles of laughter, before he seems to remember what was going on, eyes widening after catching sight of Allura once more. “Oh my god!!”

 

Keith grabs Lance by the shoulders. “Do you think this is funny? You could go straight to jail. Get your head on straight!”

 

“Uh, okay. Allura would never use the word myriad in her suicide note because she missed it on the vocab quiz,” Lance states quickly, running a hand through his hair. 

 

“So it’s a badge for her failures at school! Work with me!” Keith shouts. 

 

“Okay, okay,” Lance shakes his head. “Where do I start?”

 

“Think long and hard. Conjure her up in your mind. What would be the last thing she’d say to a cold uncaring planet?” Keith questions him, leading them into a musical number on writing Allura’s fake suicide note, all the way up to the police finding her body and the note, to the school's conversation with the kids about her death- the fake note making her out to be a much better person underneath than she really was. 

 

Finally, the musical number ends and suddenly Keith and Lance are in what appears to be Keith’s house, a staged TV set up with Pidge hanging out of it’s frame, news microphone in hand, giving grand stories about her ‘good’ times with Allura. As Keith continues to change the channel, Pidge’s face and voice continues to pop up until he finally gives up, turning the TV off all together.

 

“Damn, how many news networks did she run to?” Lance muses. Keith begins to open his mouth to answer only to be cut off by a character strolling onto stage. 

 

“Why son, I didn’t hear you come in,” The slight country drawl makes Keith stiffen, eyes widening in his seat. That was his actual father, playing the part as his dad in a play. He had so many questions about this situation, so many questions in generally he’d like to ask his father, so many times he imagined seeing his face again, but this was definitely not one. 

 

“Yeah pop, I want to introduce you to my new boyfriend,” Keith replies in an odd voice.

“Oh, hi, I’m Lance,” Lance steps forward, extending a hand but only getting met half way with a can of beer from Keith’s father. 

 

“Drink up cutie,” He replies. 

 

“It’s a little early,” Lance replies, a slight confused and questioning edge to his voice. 

 

Keith steps forward, taking the beer from Lance and giving it back to his dad. “You know the rules son, no underage drinking in this house.”

 

“Ooh, so you’re a good boy, huh?” Keith’s dad cooes, raising an eyebrow at Lance, making him sputter. 

 

“Lance was just leaving,” Keith tries to cut in. 

 

“Relax, just having some fun. Sit, sit,” His father directs Lance to the couch, sitting beside him. “Work was a real pain in the ass today. Some damn tribe of withered old bitches is tryin’ to stop my poor old dad from blowing up this fleabag motel, all because Glenn Miller once took a dump there. Just like Kansas. You remember Kansas.”

 

“Yeah,” Keith quietly replies. 

 

“The save the memorial oak society. My pop showed those tree humpers. Thirty bricks of C4 explosives stuck to the trunk. He was-” Keith’s dad escalates into a yell, having Keith join him at the end, mocking in annoyance. “Arraigned and acquitted.” His father erupts in laughter while Keith stand by looking less than amused. 

 

“Goddamn Kansas,” Keith muttered.

 

“A hell of a time, a hell of a time,” His dad shakes his head with a nostalgic smile before looking up to Keith. “So pop, can I invite my boyfriend over for super?”

 

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea son,” Keith replies, an edge of warning in his voice.

 

“Come on pop, don’t be square,” Lance watches the two interact in confusion from his spot on the couch, finally unable to stand the tension any longer and standing from his seat. 

 

“I appreciate the uh… lovely offer, but my Mama is making my favorite meal tonight: Spaghetti- lots of spices,” Lance forces a smile. 

 

“Nice, ya know the last time I saw my mom, she was waving out a library window in Texas. Right dad?” Keith raises a stiff eyebrow at his father. 

 

“Right son,” Keith’s dad replies back, equally as stiff and tense. 

 

A moment of silence follows before Lance loudly begins to speak. “Okay, well, see you tomorrow,” Walking out of the ‘house’ and making his way to center stage where the spotlight only hits him. “Dear Diary, Keith’s dad will  _ not _ be speaking at our wedding,” He huffs, making the audience laugh. Keith stares on, still a bit shaken from seeing his actual dad. 

 

The play continues on to a particularly... interesting scene and musical number involving Shiro and Matt’s characters, Lance, and two cases of… blue balls. After the scene finally fades out, everyone can’t help but lean forward in their seats to stare at Shiro at the end of their group, sunk down into his seat, hands over his obviously red face. 

 

“Add that to the quickly growing list of things I never want to see or hear again,” Pidge tried to scrub at her eyes, hoping that maybe, just maybe, if she rubbed long enough the image of Shiro and her brother coming onto Lance and singing about blue balls would disappear but no luck. Everyone, including Shiro, nodded in agreement. 

 

After a small discussion between Lance, Pidge, and Nyma on stage, things begin to pick up once more. “Ya know what, Lance? I would worry a little less about me, and a little more about your reputation. Shiro and Matt are going around telling the whole school about your little threeway last night.”

 

“Threeway?” Keith questions quickly from off to the side where he’d been watching the scene unfold.

 

“There was no threeway. Nothing happened.”

 

The stage breaks out into another musical number about… sword fighting. God, how Shiro wished he was watching himself sing about actual swords. But no. It was so much worse. 

 

The musical number ends with Keith on the ground having received a gnarly punch to the gut and Lance kneeling beside him with tears pooling in his eyes. “Keith, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. How about you, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m awesome,” Lance replies before letting out a sob. “I-I’m sorry about the waterworks.”

 

Keith tilts Lance’s head upwards, swiping thumbs under his eyes to catch the cascading tears. “They made you cry, but that will end tonight,” Keith begins to sing. “You are the only thing that’s right about this broken world. Go on and cry but when the morning comes, we’ll burn it down and then we’ll build the world again. Our love is god.” 

 

Keith stands, turning away from Lance. “Are you okay?” Lance questions.

 

“I was alone. I was a frozen lake but then you melted me away, see now I’m crying too,” Keith turns back to Lance with tears in his eyes. You’re not alone.”

 

“You’re not alone,” Lance sings back.

 

“And when the morning comes,” Keith sings, having Lance echo him back. “We’ll burn away that tear and raise our city here.”

 

“Our love is god,” They sing together, Lance’s hands cupping Keith’s face gently. The song ends as Shiro and Matt make their way onto the stage. 

 

Lance raises a phone to his ear, a phone rings out across the room. “Yeah-lo?” Matt answers.

 

“Hi Matt,” Lance replies.

 

“It’s Lance,” Matt whispers to Shiro with wide eyes.

 

“I was just wondering. How did you guys know it’s always been a fantasy of mine to have two guys at once?” Lance questions slyly into the phone, meanwhile Keith smirks at his side. Matt’s eyes widen on the other side of the phone. 

 

“Uh, lucky guess?”

 

“Well, if you want it to come true, meet me at the cemetery, at dawn.”

 

Keith and Lance continue their song from before, singing passionately to each other. Finally the lights dim and then go up once more, replacing the scene with the cemetery. Keith holding a gun in his hand, a small smile on his face. “Woah, is that real?” Lance questions, taking a step back and eyeing the gun.

 

“Yeah, but we’re filling them with Ich Luge bullets,” Keith explains, loading bullets into its chamber.

 

“Ich Luge?” Lance raises a wary eyebrow.

 

“Yeah, my granddad scored these in World War II, they contain a powerful tranquilizer. The Nazi’s user them to fake their own suicides when the Russians invaded Berlin. We will use them to knock out Shiro and Matt long enough to make it look like a suicide pact. Complete with a forged suicide note.”

 

A light shows Shiro and Matt stood on the other side of the stage, hands interlocked. Together they began to say, “Shiro and I died because we had to hide our gay forbidden love from a disapproving world.”

 

Keith and Pidge take one look at each other from where their seats before they burst into hiccups of laughter, both clutching at their stomachs, meanwhile Shiro simply glares at the two of them, a small blush just barely recognizable on his cheeks. 

 

“Hi… Lance,” Matt speaks from on stage, stood beside Shiro. 

 

“So do we just whip it out or what?” Shiro questions, making himself cringe and turn an unbearable shade of red down in the crowd. 

 

“Take it slow, Shiro, strip for me,” Lance purrs.

 

“Oh, ok!” The two of them eagerly and quickly stripping to nothing but their underwear on the stage in front of Lance. 

 

“What about you?” Matt asks.

 

“Well, I was hoping that you’d rip my clothes off… sport,” Lance struggles to get the words out between clenched teeth. 

 

“Yeah, we can do that,” Matt nods rapidly.

 

“Okay, ready. On the count of three. One… two…” Lance counts down.

 

“Three!” Keith shouts, pointing the gun and pulling the trigger, making Shiro’s eyes widen before falling to the ground.

 

“Ah! Holy crap!” Matt screams, making a run for it.

 

“Stay here, I’ll get him!” Keith shouts, running after Matt.

 

“Why are you chasing me!?” Matt yells behind him.

 

“Uh, Shiro? You’re just unconscious right? Shiro? Shiro!?” Lance kneels beside Shiro’s limp body, shaking at his broad shoulders, eyes growing wide. 

 

“Why are you chasing me? I was just kidding about the Bo Diddley thing!” Matt continues to shout and run, beginning to try and climb a chain-linked fence. 

 

“Get off the damn fence!” Keith growls, shaking the gun at him angrily. “Get of the damn fence!”

“I don't understand!”

 

Finally Keith raises his gun and shoots Matt, making his grip slip from the fence, dropping his body to the ground. 

 

“What the fuck have you done?!” Lance screams at Keith.

 

The scene soon changes soon after, showing Lance and Keith stood between Shiro and Matt’s coffins. “There’s been a lack of boys climbing through my bedroom window lately,” Keith raises an eyebrow at Lance who glares in return.

 

“Take a hint.”

 

“Okay, you’re mad. I get it,” Keith shrugs.

 

“No, I don’t think you do. Ich Luge bullets? You lied to me!”

 

“You were lying to yourself. You wanted them dead too!”

 

“Did not!” Lance yelled.

 

“Did too!” Keith shot back.

 

“Did not!”

 

“Did too!”

 

“Did not!”

 

“Did too! Hey! Did they make you cry?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Do they make you cry now?”

 

“No, but you can,” Lance turns away. 

 

“Just wait until you see the good that comes from this!” Keith tries to convince Lance, tone edging on pleading.

 

“No good could possibly come of this!”

 

“Call me an optimist,” Keith raises his arms outwards from his side. 

“Dear Diary, my teenage bullshit has a body count!” Lance says to the audience, transitioning the scene into Shiro and Matt’s funeral. 

 

Alfor and Coran stand next to each of the boys coffins. “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say up here. I’m ashamed, certainly. My family has turned their town into a laughing stock. My boy Matt isn’t who I thought he was and when I think of the sick and disgusting things Matt and Shiro were doing-” Alfor begins to speak, voice ringing out with blatant distaste. 

 

Finally Coran speaks up, pointing an angry finger at Alfor. “You wait just a minute, Alfor It is ignorant, hateful talk like yours that makes this world a place our boys could not live in! They were not dirty! They were not wrong! They were two lonely verses in the Lord's great song!”

 

“Our boys were pansies, Coran!” Alfor speaks up once more. 

 

“Yes! My boy's a homosexual and that don't scare me none— I want the world to know I love my dead gay son! I've been thinking. Praying. Reading some magazines. And it's time we opened our eyes! Well, the good Lord made the universe the Lord created man and I believe it's all a part of his gigantic plan. I know God has a reason for each mountain and each flower and why he chose to let our boys get busy in the shower! They were not dirty— They were not fruits! They were just two stray laces in the Lord's big boots. Well, I never cared for homos much until I reared me one. But now I've learned to love… I love my dead gay son!” Coran sings proudly, belting out the song with pride. 

 

Coran continues to sing the amusing song about loving his gay son, bringing up some actually quite heavy topics and good points. “Alfor, I can't believe that you still refuse to get a clue after all that we been through— I'm talkin’ you and me in the summer of '83!” A loud gasp rings through the attendees of the funeral service. 

 

Alfor pauses in his steps, slowly turning to face Coran. “That was one hell of a fishing trip.”

 

Alfor and Coran continue to approach each other while the attendees sing in surprise, launching towards each other and beginning to kiss passionately. 

 

As the musical number finishes and the stage blinks out into darkness and back again, it reveals only Keith and Lance standing there. Keith’s arms outstretched, eyes wide, an amused open mouthed grin on his face. He begins to sniff the air around them. “W-What is that? That smell in the air, is that… is that, tolerance?”

 

“How often can you say that it’s a good day to live in Sherwood, Ohio? You’re welcome town!” Keith smiles brightly, saluting out to the crowd. 

 

“Hey! You don’t have to be so smug about it,” Lance shakes his head at Keith. 

 

“You’re humble, I like that,” Keith leans down to kiss Lance, only from him to turn away after a small peck, face angry. “That is, until the next one. Hannah Duke. She’s the one who came up with the threeway rumor. I’ve been underlining meaningful passages in her copy of Moby Dick if you know what I mean.”

 

“No! No, I cannot accept this. We’ve already killed three people, this ends right here, right now!” Lance shouts. 

 

“Or what?” Keith laughs. 

 

“I’ll-I’ll break up with you,” Lance drops that bomb on Keith, making him pause his cocky act. 

 

“Even without those casualties it doesn’t mean it’s not worth fighting,” Keith says pointedly, beginning to pace and shout. “What? You’d rather go to jail!? And give a free pass to the thugs that hurt people? Evil fucks that make life so unbearable that you can’t stand to live in the world anymore!”

 

“Keith!” Lance shouts to make him stop. Pausing for a moment, seeming to be weighing his odds and options. Finally he speaks. “How did your mother die?”

 

Keith stares at Lance wide eyed before letting out a scoff, running his hand down his face. “You really wanna know?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“My dad… said it was an accident,” Keith begins. “She walked into that building two minutes before my dad blew it up. She waved to me out the window and then… Kaboom! She left.”

 

“I’m really sorry. I-”

 

“It’s okay. The pain gives me clarity! You and I are special! We have a lot of work to do,” Keith continues on. 

 

“What work?” Lance shakes his head at Keith. 

 

“Making the world a decent place for people who are decent!” Keith yells back. 

 

“When does it end?” Lance questions, rushing forward.

 

“When every asshole is dead!” Keith screams, making everyone on stage and off freeze slightly in anticipation for what's going to happen next. Lance shoves Keith back, making his stumble to the other side of the stage. 

 

“Fine we’re damaged, really damaged, but that does not make us wise. We’re not special. We’re not different, we don’t choose who lives or dies,” Lance sings, face downcasted in pain, eyebrows scrunched together. “Let’s be normal. See bad movies. Sneak a beer and watch TV. We’ll bake brownies or go bowling.

 

Don’t you want a life with me?” Lance sings through tears, voice sounding extremely angelic. “Can’t we be seventeen? That’s all I want to do, if you could let me in. I could be good with you.”

“People hurt us,” Lance continues.

 

“Or they vanish,” Keith adds.

 

“And you’re right that really blows. But we let go,” Lance sings.

 

“Take a deep breath.”

 

“And go buy some summer clothes, we’ll go camping.”

 

“Play some poker.”

 

“Then go eat some chili fries,” Lance sadly smiles as Keith turns to look at him over his shoulder, slowly turning. “Maybe prom night?”

 

“Maybe dancing?”

 

“Don’t stop looking in my eyes!” Lance reaches a hand out towards Keith.

 

“Your eyes!”

 

“Can’t we be seventeen?” They sing together, voice intermingling in a way they hadn’t the whole show, making something extremely heart wrenching and beautiful. Keith slowly travels across the stage. “Is that so hard to do? If you could let me in! I could be good with you! Let us be seventeen, if we’ve still got the right.”

 

“So what’s it gonna be?” Lance asks, placing his hand onto Keith cheek. “I wanna be with you.”

 

“I wanna be with you,” Keith rapidly nods, biting his lip nervously. 

 

“Tonight!” They sing together before finally letting their lips meet each other's. Lance holding onto Keith as if he was about to disappear and Keith grasping at Lance as if he already had. Slowly they part.

 

“Yeah we’re damaged,” Lance sadly says.

 

“Badly damaged, but your loves too good to lose.”

 

“Hold me tighter,” Lance grabs Keith and brings him closer to his chest. 

 

“Even tighter,” Keith mumbles, managing to tuck his head under Lance’s chin despite their similarities in height. 

 

“I’ll stay if I’m what you choose,” Lance sings, face sad and heartbroken.

 

“Can’t we be seventeen?”

 

“If I am what you choose.”

“If we’ve still got the right.”

 

“Cause you’re the one I choose,” Lance sings softly.

 

“You’re the one I choose,” Keith answers back. They both pull away from each other slowly, Keith lifting one hand to brush Lance’s cheek.

 

“You’re the one I choose,” They sing beautifully together before both leaning in to share a soft kiss as the lights dim. 

 

A wet sniff breaks the sound of clapping around them, making them all look to Hunk who is scrambling to wipe away his tears. “Ah, sorry, that part always gets me, it just shows how much they’re both scared teens who have felt alone their whole life and even though they’re fucked up together, they still love each other, and just, wow you guys did it so well, I’ve never seen anyone do it better, and it got me real good,” Hunk explains hurriedly, making Lance smile and pat his arm. 

 

After several more musical numbers and scenes by the student body of Westerberg High, ending with Lance saving Nyma from killing herself, we’re back to square one with Keith and Lance.

 

Lance exited the ‘bathroom’ to find Keith, stood center stage, clapping proudly. “You are a genius! You had me worried with your little confession there but you pulled it off. Best place to hide, right in plain sight.”

 

Lance shook his head. “No I wasn’t trying to hide.”

 

“Why’d you have to meddle with Nyma? One more dead bitch is a good thing!” Keith exclaimed.

 

“But she’s my friend!”

 

“Okay, then if she’s your friend then why are we letting Pidge Gunderson live? The bitch that made Nyma want to kill herself? See! Nothing ever changes if-” Keith begins to yell, waving his hands wildly. 

 

“Honestly, enough with the change business okay?” Lance cuts off Keith, staring him down angrily. 

 

“Okay so we’re just gonna let Gunderson run around spreading lies and-” 

 

“No just! Listen, listen!” Lance speaks over Keith finally getting him to shut up. “Just…  don’t talk over me okay? You promised me?”

 

Keith takes one of Lance’s hands that are tapping incessantly on his shoulders. “Promised.”

 

As they share a kiss, Lance’s arms slide around Keith’s waist, tugging him closer but also getting snagged on something hard and cold tucked into his waistband. Making a sound of alarm, grabbing the object and pulling back, he looks down to find a gun in his hand. “What the hell!?  You’re carrying a loaded gun on you? You promised!”

“Look! It’s a dangerous world!” Keith tries to defend himself, snatching back the gun from Lance’s hands. 

 

“Yeah, because of you!” Lance snarls back at him. “You know what? Don’t call me. Don’t talk to me.”

 

“Lance-” Keith begins to protest. 

 

“No, you don’t understand the difference between right and wrong!” 

 

“C’mon! Come back!” Keith shouts, chasing after Lance as he walks away. 

 

“No!” Lance spins around, pointing a finger at Keith. “We’re over!”

 

“I love you!” Keith yells, making Lance pause in his tracks, staring at him in shock, before shaking his head.  

 

“Goodbye, Keith,” Lance mumbles, walking away.

 

After a particularly sad song with Hunk, the scene shows Lance and Nyma laughing and playing around, until Pidge struts up, clipboard in hand. “Hey guys! Missed you after eighth period!”

 

“Yeah we were avoiding you,” Lance replies blandly. 

 

“Here, I need you both to sign this,” Pidge jerks the clipboard out in front of the two. 

 

“What is that?”

 

“It’s a petition the have the governor declare a day of remembrance to honor the victims of suicide. I’ve gotten everyone to sign it, even the dweebs and losers.” Pidge explains. 

 

“I’m not signing that,” Lance shakes his head.

 

“Lance, why are you pulling my dick,” Pidge quotes Allura, giving him an eyeroll for good measure. “It was your boyfriend’s idea.”

 

“Wait, Keith?”

 

“He made up the signature sheet and everything!”

 

“Hold on,” Lance mumbles, snatching the clipboard and scanning the papers pinned to it, all filled with signatures of the whole student body. “Look, I don’t know what Keith is up to but if you know what’s good for you, please just throw that away.”

 

“Not a chance! I’ll just fake your signature like I did Hunk Dumptruck, he’s in no shape to sign anything today.”

 

“Why not?” Nyma questions curiously.  

 

“It was on the radio! He took a belly flop off the old mill bridge last night holding a suicide note,” Pidge drawls.

 

“Oh my god,” Lance gasps. “Wait is he dead?”

 

“Just a couple of broken bones,” Pidge rolls her eyes. “Just another geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably!”

 

“Damn, I’m stone cold bitch in this,” Pidge mutters to herself.

 

“Yo, boy, keep it together. I knew you would come far. Now you’re truly an Altean, smell how gangster you are,” Allura, Shiro, and Matt all sing at Lance from a platform above him. 

 

Lance rushes over to the other side of the stage where Hunk lays in a bed, eyes closed and multiple body parts wrapped in bandage. “Hunk, I’m so sorry.”

 

“Yo girl, feel a bit punchy? He’s not looking too well. Still you’ve earned that red scrunchie, come join Allura in hell,” They continue to sing.

 

The audience’s eyes follow Lance as he enters his own house, revealing his mother and father, making Lance let out a small gasp at seeing his true parents again. “Where have you been?!” His father exclaims.

 

“We’ve been worried sick! Your friend Keith stopped by, he told us everything?” His mama frowns at him.

 

Lance freezes, eyeing his parents. “Everything?”

 

“Your depression? Your thoughts of suicide?” His father mentions.

 

“He showed us your copy of Moby Dick!” His mother holds out the book to him which he snatches from her hands and begins to flip through the pages. 

 

“He’s got your handwriting down cold,” The ghost of Allura muses over his shoulder. 

 

“Please, honey, talk to us,” Lance’s mom begs.

 

“No, you wouldn’t understand!” Lance snarls back. 

 

“Try me! I’ve experienced everything you’re going through right now,” She replies. 

 

“Guess who’s right down the block?” The dead crew sings in the background.

 

“Your problems seem like life and death!” His mother continues on.

 

“Guess who’s climbing the stairs?”

 

“I promise they’re not,” She pleads, pushing her fingers through Lance’s hair. 

 

“Guess who’s picking your lock?”

 

“You don’t know what my world looks like!” Lance shakes on her hand, dashing up the stairs.

 

“Times up! Go say your prays!” Shiro, Matt, and Allura belt, watching Lance run down the stage and into his ‘room’. “Lance’s running on, running on fumes now. Lance is totally fired. Lance has got to be tripping on shrooms now, thinking he can hide! Lance’s done for, there’s not doubt now, notify next of kin! Lance is trying to keep him out now- Too late! He got in!”

 

“Knock, knock!” Keith sing-songs, making his way onto the stage. “Sorry to come through the window, dreadful edict I know!”

 

“Get out of my house,” Lance growls.

 

“Hiding in the closet?” Keith chuckles, cooing through the door. “C’mon open the door!”

 

“No. I’ll scream and my parents will call the police.”

 

“All is forgiven baby! C’mon, get dressed, you’re my date for the pep rally tonight!” Keith shouts with an eerily creepy smile.

 

“Damn, I’ve gotta admit, Keith is perfect for this role,” Lance shakes his head, thoroughly impressed and shaken just by how good he was doing at JD’s role. 

 

“What why?” Lance calls from the closet.

 

“Well, our classmates thought they were signing a petition, you gotta come out here and see what they really signed!” Keith exclaimed in twisted excitement. “You chucked me out like I was trash, for that you should be dead!”

 

Keith wags a finger. “But, but, but then it hit me like a flash! What if high school went away instead? Those assholes are the key! They’re keeping you away from me! They made you blind messed up your mind, but I can set you free!”

 

Keith’s performance of the song was equally creepy and magnificent. Lance can honestly say he’d never seen someone play JD’s part better than him. “You left me and I fell apart, I punched the wall and cried- Bam! Bam! Bam! Then I found you changed my heart and set loose all that truthful shit inside. And so I built a bomb, tonight our school is Vietnam, let’s guarantee they never see their senior prom!”

 

Keith smiles out to the audience, shifting the song so he was clutching the papers full of signatures to his chest, gazing towards the closet where Lance stood wide eyed and terrified. “I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! Don’t give up on me now, finish what we’ve begun. I was meant to be yours.

 

“So when the high school gym goes BOOM! With everyone inside- phew, phew, phew! In the rubble of their tomb, we’ll plant this no explaining why they died.”

 

Keith positioned himself on stage, everyone from Westerberg High positioned around him to read the note together. “We the students of Westerberg High, will die,” Keith read along, face spreading into a grin, eyes scrunching together in happiness. “Our burnt bodies may finally get through to you. Your society turns out slaves and blank. No thanks! Signed the students of Westerberg High… goodbye!”

 

“We’ll watch the smoke pour out the doors, bring marshmallow, we’ll make s'mores! We can smile and cuddle while the fire roars!” Keith passionately sings to Lance, going back into the chorus as the light that once illuminated Lance dims out leaving darkness in its wake. 

 

Keith stand in front of the closet door now, pulling at his hair. “Lance! Open the- open the door now! Lance, open the door! Lance, can we not fight anymore, please? Can we not fight anymore? Lance, sure you’re scared I’ve been there! I can set you free! Lance, don’t make me come in there, I’m gonna count to three. One… Two- Fuck it!”

 

As he screams, he knocks down the door only for the light to show Lance hanging from his neck making everyone around them, besides Lance and Hunk, gasp.

 

“No way. No. No way, there is no way he’s dead!” Keith shouts from his seat, turning to look at Hunk and Lance with wide, crazed, and disbelieving eyes. They both only shrug back at him, making him let out a loud groan and flop back into his seat to watch the rest of the crazy play that he somehow got wildly into. 

 

“Oh my god… no, Lance. Please don’t leave me alone, you were all I could trust, I can’t do this alone. Still I will if I must!” 

 

“Lance? I brought you some snacks?” Lance’s mother's voice rings out, making Keith’s eyes widen, scurrying around the escape back out the window he came from. “Lance?” As she enters the room the tray of snacks she was once carrying clatters to the floor, a loud shriek ringing around the auditorium. 

 

Lance scrambles to remove the rope from his neck, rushing towards his mom. “No! No! No! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! It was just a joke!”

 

“It’s not funny!” She screams back at him. 

 

Lance, after a short conversation with his parents, exits his house and continues to Westerberg, croquet mallet in hand. “I wanted someone strong who could protect me, I let his anger fester and infect me. His solution is a lie, no one here deserves to die except for me and the monster I created, yeah! Yeah! Heads up Keith, I’m a dead boy walking!”

 

Keith leans forward in his seat with wide eyes and a gaping mouth once more to stare at Lance and Hunk, who look back at him expectantly. “That’s like the same song from before! But… like different!”

 

“Mhm,” Lance nods, smirking at the look of amazement on Keith’s face, practically seeing stars shining in his eyes. 

 

“That’s so awesome!” He bounced slightly in his seat before turning back to the play. 

 

Lance walks into the school hallways. “Can’t hide from me, I’m a dead boy walking! And there's your final bell, one more dance and then farwell, cheek to cheek in hell with a dead boy walking!”

 

Students at the pep rally cheer around them. “C’mon Westerburg! Here we go, here we go now.”

 

“Lance?!” A teacher from earlier scenes exclaims, eyes wide. “Keith told me you had just committed suicide!”

 

“Yeah? Well he’s wrong about a lot of things,” Lance replies.

 

“I threw together a lovely tribute,” The teacher frowned, almost seeming disappointed that Lance was still alive so she could show her work anymore. “Especially considering the short notice.”

 

“What’s under the gym?” Lance cut the chase.

 

“The boiler room?”

 

“That’s it,” Lance nods to himself, turning to leave.

 

“What’s going on?!”

 

“Got no time to talk, I’m a dead boy walking.”

 

The students cheered and chanted as Lance made his way to the boiler room, finally finding Keith crouched on the ground, fiddling with C4 and wire. “Step away from the bomb.”

 

Keith looks up, smiling to see Lance. He finally stands, holding what he’d been messing with. “Oh this little thing? I’d hardly call this a bomb, this is just to set off the pack of thermals upstairs in the gym. Those are bombs!” Keith smirks as he pulls a gun from his waistband, holding it to Lance’s forehead, who barely flinches or blinks, remaining blank faced.

 

“People will see the ashes of Westerburg High school and they’ll think there's a school that self-destructed not because society didn’t care, but because that school was society. The only place that Alteans and Hunks can get along is in Heaven!”

 

“I wish your mom had been a little stronger,” Lance began to sing, taking step-by-step closer and closer to Keith, who continued to step back with him. “I wish she’d stayed around a little longer. I wish your dad were good! I wish grown ups understood! I wish we’d met before they convinced you life is war! I wish you’d come with me!”

 

“I wish I had more TNT!” Keith screamed back at Lance before he dived from the gun in Lance’s hands. During their fight the students of Westerburg continue their chants all around them, seemingly unaware of the chaos ensuing in the hell below the gym. Not even noticing when a loud gunshot rings out through the boiler room. Lance lets out a scream, both of them stilling after the noise.

 

They both stumble away from each other, revealing the gun still in Keith’s hands, still pointed at Lance, before he, himself, stumbles backwards and lands on the ground. Through pants, he says. “Was that good for you? Cause it kinda sucked for me.”

 

“Keith…” Lance stares wide eyes at the boy on the floor for a moment before rushing to his side. “Keith! Are you okay? Just listen to me, okay, just listen to me! It’s over, okay? Which wire do I pull? Keith, which wire do I pull!? K-Keith…” 

 

Lance pulls away from Keith’s still body after his grunting stops and he gets no further reply. After a moment, he finally limps his way over to the bomb, desperately trying to disarm it. “Dear Diary, the irony of this is that I never got to write my own suicide note.”

 

A grunt comes from the side of the stage, making Lance look over with wide eyes to find Keith limping his way slowly over to him. “Smart boy, bring the trigger bomb out to the football field and nobody dies. Except you… if you keep holding onto that thing.”

 

“I deserve to die!” Lance yells back at him. 

 

“I respectfully… disagree,” Keith replies back through laboured breaths. He risks leaving the support of the wall, pushing off in hopes to reach Lance, pull the bomb from his arms. “Give it to me.”

 

“Stay away from me!” They both fall to the ground with their injuries. 

 

“Or what?” Keith sits back. “I am damaged, far too damaged. But you’re not beyond repair. Stick around here, make things better, cause you beat me fair and square,” He grunts as he takes the bomb from Lance, managing to stand, putting distance between them. “Please stand back now.”

 

Lance inches away from him. “Little further,” and even more.

 

“Don’t know what this thing will do,” Keith sadly smiles at Lance, tears beginning to glisten on his waterline. “Hope you miss me. Wish you’d kiss me, then you’d know I worship you.”

 

“I’d trade my life for yours,” Keith sang, smiling through his tears and clutching the bomb to his chest. 

 

“Oh my god,” Lance breaths, his own tears beginning to surface.

 

“And once I disappear.”

 

“Wait, hold on!” Lance yells, reaching out a hand. 

 

“Clean up the mess down here!”

 

“Not this way,” Lance manages to choke out between sobs, eyes squeezing shut and tears freely rolling down both of their cheeks now. 

 

“Our love is god,” Five. “Our love is god,” Four. “Our love is god,” Three.

 

Two.

 

“Say hi to god,” Lance blubbers out, catching Keith’s watery smile one last time.

 

One. 

 

Boom!

 

“Oh my god,” A watery exclamation comes from the one and only mullet in the theatre. “Oh my fucking god! That can’t be how they end!?”

 

Everyone turns to Keith in surprise, even more shocked to find the tears free-flowing down his cheeks. “I-I know K-Keith was fucked up and their relationship was abusive and Lance doesn’t deserve that but seriously? That’s it? It’s just… they… He traded his life for Lance’s.”

 

Lance’s eyes are wide watching the violet orbs pool and glisten with the salty water extracted by his favorite play. Yes, the scene was extremely sad, and slightly relieving, and it was supposed to be heart wrenching. But never did he expect Keith, of all people, to get so into it that it would make him cry. 

 

“He died with a purpose, which is more than he could probably had’ve said otherwise,” Lance gave him a small smile. 

 

With a shaky breath, Keith nods. “You’re right… it’s just… that goddamn song.”

 

“I’ll agree with you there,” Lance nods back, giving him one last reassuring smile before turning back to the play. 

 

As Lance emerges from the boiler room, covered in black grime, Nyma rushes forward. “Where have you been? People are saying you killed yourself!”

 

“You look like hell,” Pidge commented.

 

“I just got back,” Lance glared down at her. 

 

“Listen up folks, war is over, brand new sheriff's come to town. We are done with acting evil, we will lay our weapons down. We’re all damaged, we’re all frightened, we’re all freaks, but that’s alright. We’ll endure it, we’ll survive it, Hunk are you free tonight?” Lance looks hopefully over to Hunk, who stares back in surprise. 

 

“What?” He meekly replies.

 

“Uhm, my date to the prep rally kind of blew-” Lance stops, shaking his head. “Me off. So I was wondering, if you weren’t doing anything tonight, maybe we could pop some Jiffy Pop and rent a video? Something with a happy ending?”

 

“Are there any happy endings?” Hunk sadly replies back and Keith swears his heart drops seven stories down into his stomach. 

 

“I can’t promise no more Alteans, high school may not ever end. Still I miss you, I’d be honored if you’d let me be your friend,” Lance sings.

 

“We can be seventeen, we can learn to chill. If no one loves me now, someday someone will! We can be seventeen, still time to make things right. One day we’ll change the world, but let’s kick back tonight!”

 

As all the students begin to join in, all smiling, a sense of rejoice and finality surrounding everyone. Lance turns to catch Keith smiling up at the people dancing and singing on stage, remnants of tears still barely there. Once they wrap and the stage turns back, Keith turns back to everyone. “Okay that was awesome! The way that all the characters were developed, how they were all like normal people with good and bad traits, and the songs! The songs were so cool and funny and dark at the same time! I didn’t know that this is what musicals were like. When I thought musicals I thought annoying shit like just stupid romance but this was so much better. Wow!”

 

Lance, and everyone else, can’t help but smile at Keith’s enthusiasm, listening to him babble until the black all overcomes them once more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think the reason keith was so shooken up by the whole thing was because he related with keith/jd's character so much and to see him risk his life for someone else after being so fucked up probably got to him. 
> 
> i also love the idea of keith being super soft and excited about finding out about things he never got to experience when he was younger and just being a huge nerd about things he finds cool!


	5. see you soon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is inspired by this incredible art:
> 
> http://peachlance.tumblr.com/post/159435214437/pepplemint-heres-a-different-version-of

This time it’s the dark glow of Galra purple that welcomes them back to reality. Shiro seems to startle slightly backwards, almost bumping into Pidge, his eyes rapidly flicking around them. One of the worst things about Galra ships were not only the fact the hallways were so barren and cold feeling, it’s that they were so dark. Yet, right now, they seemed even darker, lit only by the soft glow of purple strips down the floor and ceiling on either side of them, making the atmosphere feel eerie and suspenseful. “The lights are on low,” Shiro clears his throat, having calmed down enough to remember no one else would be able to see or hurt them. “Meaning it’s nighttime on the ship, most Galra should be asleep.”

 

“I wonder what this could possibly have to do with Lance,” Pidge hums, looking around them in interest, being able to admire the Galra ship like she hadn’t been able to all the previous times she’d been on the any ship of the Galra’s. 

 

“I feel… weird about this,” Lance mumbles, glancing about nervously. 

 

“What do you mean weird?” Hunk questions, thick eyebrows pulling together. 

 

“I just feel on edge,” Lance shrugs. “It’s probably just because we’re on a Galra ship and we’re just standing here. Feels like we should be fighting or running or something.”

 

“Ditto,” Keith agrees, nodding as he reaches for the knife attached to his belt. 

They’re broken out of their own conversation by the heavy pants and footsteps they near them. They almost jump into fighting stances before all remembering that it wasn’t necessary now, although that didn’t stop Shiro from letting his hand begin to glow and Keith from gripping the handle of his blade. 

 

All of a sudden a Galra woman slides around a corner, glancing frantically behind her shoulder as she began to sprint again, right through their group, almost brushing through Keith and Hunk. Her hair is a silky and short deep purple, eyes a glowing yellow yet still holding a fear none of them had ever seen in another Galra before. Her clawed hand bangs on a panel next to the door she was desperately trying to get into. “C’mon!” She growled, pointed fangs peeking over her lips just slightly. “Please, please, just open!”

 

“Deserters are punishable by death,” A chilling voice speaks from behind them, making all of them, including the Galra, whirl around. There, at the only escape from the hallway, stood a druid, hood down to show their long white hair, purple skin, and harsh red markings. The Galra crouches into a fighting stance, unsheathing a dagger from the pack on her back. Keith let’s out a stuttered breath, eyes widening as an exact duplicate of the dagger in his hand is held outwards at the druid. “It would be unfortunate if that little halfling of yours ended up without a guardian- or did you think you had kept it a secret? Half-human, half-galra? Your child is better off dead, just like you.”

 

As the druid spoke, the Galra’s eyes came alight with a fire so fierce and charring that it almost scared the rest of them watching. “I think that’s my mom,” Keith manages to get out, making everyone take a double take between the two of them. Looking at them in that light did bring out some resemblance, as much resemblance as a human teen could have to a purple alien. Their hair had the same downy fluffy texture and their nose looked scarily similar. 

 

“If that’s a threat I won’t-” She growls, baring her full set of sharp teeth and canines, beginning to launch herself towards the still druid, blade taut. 

 

“I’m not here to stop you,” The druid spoke softly, letting out a shaking sigh before their eyes cast back up to the surprised Galra who had stuttered to a stop. “I want to help you escape… on one condition.”

 

The Galra seemed to stare skeptically at the druid, knife still clutched between the fingers of her purple hand, hair on her neck bristled upwards to show the druid she wasn’t standing down quite yet. “And what might that be?”

 

The druid steps forward slightly, making the Galra step back, well, as much as they could before their heel meets the door they were once trying to escape from. Shifting, the white-haired alien pushed back one side of their cloak to reveal a dark skinned sleeping baby. On the high points of his cheeks were unmistakable blue Altean markings, feathery brown hair curling around his chubby cheeks. “He is weak, he will not survive here. But  _ you _ know of a planet Zarkon does not. Take him with you, take him somewhere safe.”

 

The Galra woman, now straightened up, blade pushed back into it’s knife holster. Her eyes are perked up in surprise, mouth slightly parted as she inches forward to look at the baby closer up, wrapped in a murky purple cloth, probably a spare prisoner outfit that no one would notice was missing. The druid’s eyes pool with tears as she shoves the child outwards towards her. “Please, this is all I’m asking, take him with you, protect him, make sure he’s safe, and I will ensure you both escape here safely and you make it back to your own son.”

 

The fluffy purple alien, still frozen and staring at the boy’s soft sleeping features, looks slowly back up to the druid, recognizing the same soul-wrenching pain she had felt so much recently. One that she never imagined she’d ever feel for herself. She never planned on baring a child, ever, especially not with her own involvement with the Blades of Marmora, she had a mission and a whelp would only bring her down physically and mentally. That was until she was trapped on Earth, until she met Jake, but even then she had never saw anything coming of it, she was to heal and then return back to the Blades. She definitely hadn’t expected the love she felt towards the human near the end of her healing process and to find her stomach swelling with an unfamiliar weight. Now though, she couldn’t imagine her life without her son and lover, she’d risk it all for them to just be safe. And that’s exactly what she was trying to do now. And exactly what she saw the druid before her trying to do for her own son. To refuse their request would hurt both of them in the long run, the child would die before he even knew what death or Zarkon or war was; even though that was the first things you were taught in a universe like this. Her mind was telling her to say no, it would only bring her down, the extra weight of a child, much less for a druid she had never even met. Then again, looking down at the angelic features of the baby, her heart tugged roughly. How could she be the one to decide if he was to live or die? Besides, ensured safe travels were more than appreciated. How her and her human would manage to care for two whelps was something they’d have to figure out later. 

 

The Galra gently takes the child in her arms, feeling his small fragile limbs squirm slightly in the blanket before settling once more. “What’s his name?”

 

“Lance,” The druid hiccups between swelling tears. “His name is Lance.”

 

Lance takes in a sharp breath as the druid’s words reach his ears. This wasn’t real, he reminded himself, this is just another universe. Another way things could’ve been, how they were somewhere else. This wasn’t real. He wasn’t Altean or a druid or whatever. 

 

“You must depart now,” The druid murmurs quickly, moving to tap their fingers along the now active panel besides the door, successfully opening it with a woosh, revealing the entrance to an escape pod. Spinning back around, the druid’s once yellow eyes fade away to reveal deep blue. “Please, keep him safe. I will forever be in debt to you, Sumire.”

 

The druid steps towards the Galra, Sumire, and baby. One hands gently strokes Lance’s hair, a thumb caressing the mark on his cheek, making him lean into the touch and let out a satisfied hum. “Mama loves you Lance, I will always love you, I’ll never forget you,” The druid whispers, lips getting caught on stray tears before pressing them softly to his forehead. 

 

“Safe travels,” The druid nods to Sumire, pushing her gently into the pod with her son. Sumire’s eyes widen, rushing forward to the now sealed doors of the pod, banging a fist on the glass.

 

“What is your name!?” She shouts, uncaring of the sleeping baby in her arms. He would want to know this information later, she knew he would. 

 

The druid sadly smiled back at her, mouthing her name back. “Haggar.”

Then just like that, the pod launched with the door behind, not even giving a second more for Sumire to make sure she remembered the woman's face for the future.

 

The team stood stunned for only a moment before the scenery around them seemed to move extremely fast, leaving only streaks of color around them. One the dizzy spinning of purples and blacks turned reds and oranges calmed they found themselves stood before Keith’s old shack. The garden he had kept in the back seems more luscious and well kept than the last they’d seen it and the outside well kept, looking more like a house than the shack they were familiar with. It was still small and the land around it deserted, but it looked more welcoming. 

 

Keith was the first to begin walking forward, taking one cautious step into the dry desert sand, like it might just engulf him. After determining it was safe enough he began to creep towards the porch of the shack, the others in tow. Once close enough, they found the door open, most likely to let in the slight spring breeze that swept the terrain. Soft chatter flittered out of the door and windows, the sound of a TV going, and the smell of bacon and eggs. Keith found walking into his old home almost foreign, despite the many years he spent in the house, a good chunk of his childhood and then a bit of his teen years. But this place was different then he was used to, there weren’t any of his posters on the walls, or clothes on the floor and evidence that a teenage boy lived on his own here. Instead, the inside was decorated with some picture frames, plants, and comfortable furniture. 

 

“Kitz ra vem,” A voice spoke from the kitchen.  _ Come here,  _ Keith somehow recognized the foreign language the women was speaking. It’s the Galra they had just seem moments ago but instead of being dressed in traditional Galran attire, she was clad in a nice pair of black shorts and a white tank top, slightly longer hair pulled up off her neck. She held out a spatula towards a broad man with a dark head of hair, eggs balancing dangerously on the tip. The man dove forward to catch them in his mouth, humming moments later, shaking his head at Sumire. 

 

“I don’t know how you manage to cook human food better than me,” He chuckled, closing in on her to press a soft kiss onto her cheek, making her purr lightly, smile splitting across her face. 

 

“It’s just so much most intricate and interesting than Galra cooking is, every dish is so different and customizable,” She explained, going back to mess with the two pans in front of her, sizzling on the stove. “I just find it quite fun. I haven’t been able to enjoy something purely for fun in a long time.”

 

The man steps back to lean against the counter, arms crossed, and now facing the group of them, giving them a full view of Keith’s father’s face. “I’m glad you’re happy here.”

 

“So very. I’ve never felt more on top of the galaxy,” She replies, the splitting grin showing her sharp canines. 

 

“I think the saying you’re looking for is ‘on top of the world’,” Keith’s dad replies, an amused smirk playing his younger, unscarred face. 

 

Sumire shakes her head. “No, it’s not big enough. I feel like I could fight Zarkon here.”

 

They can practically see Keith’s father’s heart eyes from here, gazing softly at Sumire as she smiled and cooked. 

A loud shrill laughter echos down a hall, followed by padded footsteps. “Stop! Aha, Keith!” Lance emerges from the corner of the hallway wall, turning sharply into the kitchen, darting to the other side of the dining room table as Keith makes his way out of the hallways next, yellowed eyes darting around until he spots Lance. With a smile he runs forward, purple spots creeping from his ears and to his cheeks, stopping there though, leaving his pale skin to fill the rest of his features. 

 

Keith bounces back and forth from the other side of the table, ready to catch Lance whichever way he runs. Finally Lance believes he sees an opening, pointed ears perking up with his courage just before making a break for it. Although, there are no true openings with Keith is guarding and he is almost instantly tackled to the wooden floors, rolling around like puppies. Finally they settle their toppling over each other, stopping right in front of Keith and Lance’s feet. The small Keith is sat on top of Lance, letting his Galra features over take him until he’s fully purple like his mom. He lifts his clawed arms up into the air, letting out a small roar, somewhat like a lion. It reminds Lance slightly of one of the wild things from Where the Wild Things Are. Lance lets out a laugh, tilting his head back on the floor, his altean markings glowing ever so slightly. 

 

“Boys,” Keith’s father speaks up, making their heads shoot to the side, bodies tensing. “I thought we talked about-”

 

“Yeah, yeah, only shift when we’re in our rooms, we never know when someone will come by and see us,” Keith sighs, standing up from Lance, features slowly fading back until he was fully human appearing again. He holds a hand out to Lance, who pouts but takes it anyways. 

 

“But Mama doesn’t shift,” Lance mumbles, gazing up at the two parents through his eyelashes, Altean characteristics still on display. Sumire frowns, looking over to Keith’s father.

 

“Jake…” She mumbles softly. 

 

Keith’s dad, now known as Jake to the rest of them, kneels before the two boys, standing guilty. “Mama isn’t like the two of you guys, you can both shift back and forth thanks to your own genetics. You guys are special,” Jake explains. 

 

“Mama’s special too,” Keith pipes up, eyebrows furrowing together, looking angrily at his father. Lance frantically looks before the too before stepping closer to Keith, taking his hand in his own brown skinned one. 

 

“Yeah! Mama is real real real special!” Lance shouts, sticking up his nose to make a point. 

 

Jake looked hopelessly back to his partner who stood looking at the two boys like they’d hung the stars in the sky. She steps forward, kneeling besides Jake, bringing up a fluffy purple hand to smooth down both of the boys hair, Keith purring happily. “My beautiful baby boys, you’re both too good to me, I do not deserve you both. Thank you,” She smiles softly, pressing kisses to both of their foreheads. “But, your father is right, we have discussed the matter of shifting, even at home it’s not safe. You both need to stay in your human forms as much as possible, we never know who may come around and they could do… bad things to us. And I can’t have anything happening to you two.”

 

Lance frowns guiltily, looking down at his feet as his Altean ears shrink down to match Keith’s, Altean marks dispersing into his dark skin, and the blues of his eyes becoming less complicated and bright, turning more murky and dark. “But what about you, Mama? What if someone comes by and sees you?”

 

“I’ll deal with that when it happens,” She gives a sad, soft smile to Lance, smoothing back his messy brown locks. “Now c’mon let’s eat brea-”

 

The sentence is cut off short by the explosion of glass from one of the windows, making them jump to shield themselves. Only the glass that should’ve hit them but instead passed through them, shattering across the floor and collecting in hair, leaving red cuts on skin. A loud shriek haunts the silence that follows afterwards, only interrupted by the loud thrashing of Lance’s own heartbeat watching the scene play out. “K-Keith!? Lance?!” Sumire’s voice quivers as the smoke begins to settle, heavy boots against desert dusted hardwood floors. 

 

Looking over, Lance finds the rest of his group watching everything before them with wide, terrified eyes. Keith’s eyes rapidly scan the group for any signs of the two children, hands twitching like he was about to dive into this reality himself. 

 

Sumire emerges from the smoke, purple fur now a pasty gray, Jake following quickly behind her, eyes the size of saucers, a gun now clenched between sturdy fingers. “Kids?! Where are you?”

 

Nothing but the sound of crunching glass follows Jake’s call. Then a laugh. Sick and cold and terrifying. “I didn’t think it was true, the rumors that is,” The figure steps out of the clearing smoke, heavy boots crunching under debris. Another Galra, followed by two more settling behind the first, blasters ready in hand. He looks like some evil villain straight out of some crazy sci-fi show that Lance used to watch when he was younger, that would inevitably give him nightmares. His upper lip tips up in a snarl, sharpened canines glinting in the dusty light. “I couldn’t believe that you, Sumire, would’ve been so stupid as to bare a filthy creatures whelp, much less to term. Where is that precious little mistake, hm?”

 

Sumire lets out a threatening growl, baring her own knife, shifting her feet into a firm fighting stance. “What do you want, Kelov?” 

 

The Galra man hums, taking one causal step towards the two adults, making Sumire ever so slightly move in front of Jake. It’s not like Jake couldn’t hold his own, it’s just Sumire had many years of fighting practice and what to do in these kinds of situations, plus… Sumire didn’t mind it this went south for herself. As long as her sons and lover survived, that is all that mattered. 

 

“I want you to come back to the fleet, you were one of our best warriors, and it’s not like this an offer most traitors and deserters get. Yet, Zarkon seems to have a soft spot for you and agreed that he’d allow you to join us again at the small price of the heads of your bastard child and human filth,” Kelov gives Sumire and Jake a large grin like he’d just done them a blessing. Like he’d just stepped out of the Heavens and told them he was Jesus himself, here to save them all. Jake’s face remains stoic besides a small twitch of his eyebrow and flicking his eyes quickly around the room for any sight of the children. Sumire on the hand lets out a roar so loud it rumbles the floor boards and crushed glass on top of them. Kelov lets out a small tsk, nodding at one of the Galra soldiers to his right. Without warning, a shot rings through the air and Sumire drops to the ground with a thud. 

 

Everything is eerily silent with shock, much like right after the explosion had happened. Keith lets out a loud shaky breath, eyes wide and unmoving. In this moment, Lance, in a sick and sad way, can’t help but notice just how much Keith and Jake look a like. The quiver of their thick brows, widening of dark slanted eyes, slightly parted lips. Fear is mirrored here. 

 

What breaks the silence and shock are two small battle cries. The smaller Keith and Lance are almost unseen blurs as they charge Kelov at an impressive speed for their tiny legs. Kelov doubles over with a yelp, falling to the floor next to the lump that was currently Sumire, unmoving and surrounded by a dark plum colored liquid. Kelov hisses, shaking his legs, which were both currently captured by Lance and Keith, who both, surprisingly, have sunk their teeth into his leg. With a few rough shakes, Lance and Keith both get thrown a short distance away from Kelov, enough for him to back away from them. With a hesitant chuckle, lacking the confidence of before, Kelov raises an eyebrow at Sumire, who is beginning to stir, grunts and groans slipping from her mouth. “You had more than one disgusting child with this man? No one told me about this. He doesn’t look more like you. Or maybe, you’re just taking in other people’s runts?” Kelov purrs, eyes following Lance in interest, the child only glaring back at him, eyes looking… familiar. “Doesn’t matter, I’m not here for him. I’m here for you. He’ll be dead, anyways.” 

 

Kelov’s foot, in one swift swipe, sends Lance’s small body tumbling to the side, landing near Sumire’s feet like a ragdoll. “Lance!” Keith and Jake shout. Sumire lets out a pained whine, eyes pooling with tears, teeth gritting in effort to push herself up. 

 

“You do not touch them,” Jake sneers, cocking his gun and quickly taking aim, shooting at the three Galra. With each shot that hits them, they hiss in pain, the same plummy syrup leaking from the newly formed bullet hole, but other than that they remain functional, much to Jake’s disdain. A noise of frustration worms it’s way out of Jake’s mouth as his shaky hands fumble to reload his gun. 

 

“So, you’re the puny thing that is keeping Sumire from serving the empire?” Kelov purrs, looking down at Keith, who despite being maybe 6 feet shorter, stood tall at the cold stare. “Well if we take away what’s making her stay, she’ll have no reason not to come back to us, right?”

 

In one swift motion, Kelov’s clawed hand is wrapped around Keith’s skinny neck. Jake tries to leap forward to stop him but only gets shot in the shoulder one step in, knocking him back and onto the ground. Keith let out desperate gasps, trying to pull at the fingers wrapped around his throat, dark eyes wide open and bulging. “Stop,” Sumire pleaded, barely able to lift herself from the floor to try and make her way to Kelov. “Stop please!”

 

Keith began turning an unhealthy shade of purple, not Galra purple but a more ashy purple, his lips turning pale and blue, movements becoming slow and weak. “She said…” A small voice croaks, diverting their attention back to the once limp Lance, beginning to pull himself up. “To stop!” And with the shout of those words, a snap of blue electricity fills the room, seizing Kelov, but not touching Keith. The shock of the electricity makes Kelov shudder and drop Keith to the ground. Lance is now stood, small hands opened at his sides, sparks of blue erupting from his palms, eyes a Galra yellow, and Altean features on full display. 

 

“A child druid? How-!?” One of the Galra sputters, watching the scene play about before him. 

 

Lance turns to Keith, gasping breaths and coughing on the floor. The color slowly starting to return to his face, but bruised handprints already beginning to show on his neck. “Keith, are you okay? Please, look at me, are you okay?”

 

Keith’s eyes lethargically look up to meet Lance’s yellow ones, pulling in a sharp breath. “Lance- you…,” Keith tries to wheeze out.

 

“It’s alright, you guys are going to be okay, I promise,” Lance manages a shaky smile before turning back to the shaking form of Kelov, slowly beginning to rise. 

 

A gruff chuckle comes from Kelov, “A galra half-breed and a damned druid boy, quite the pair all held up in this shitty excuse for a house. How did you all ever expect to live a normal life on this planet? I’d be doing you a favour by killing you all.”

 

Lance, glancing at Kelov once more, turns over his shoulder to look at his family laying there, all in various states of pain. “Papa,” He begins, looking at Jake who stares back at him in a state of shock and awe. “Take Mama and Keith and… and run, I’ll hold them off and meet up with you guys after.”

 

“Lance, no, I can’t just leave you, you’re our son too,” Jake’s face scrunches in pain at even the thought of leaving him behind. 

 

“Mama’s gonna die if you don’t. I promise, I’ll meet back up with you, I promise! I never break promises,” Lance mumbles, and for whatever reason, uttering the words bring tears to his eyes. Maybe because he knows this will be the first lie he’s ever told his parents, maybe because he’ll never see them again. Yet, it’s worth it. As long as they survive. 

 

“We can’t leave him,” Keith yells, looking wildly between his father and Lance, his own angry tears beginning to pool on his waterline. Jake seems to look at the situation around them, Kelov staring at them in amusement, like he knows something they don’t, his henchmen behind him waiting to make the move. Sumire unconscious, shallow breathing barely even present. Keith, and his crying, the purple handprint around his pale throat. And then Lance, standing brave and sure, tears still leaking down his cheeks, over the glowing blue marks that Jake had always been so fascinated with when he’d watch him sleep as a baby, cuddled up next to Keith. Leaving him might mean losing a son, not leaving might mean losing a family. 

 

“I hate to interrupted but… I don’t have the time for this,” Kelov sighs, boredly, snapping his fingers at the Galra drones, who instantly raise their gun and begin to shoot. 

 

“Go!” Lance shouts over the sound of wood and other things breaking and exploding around them. “C’mon, c’mon,” Lance mutters down at his hands, shaking them, trying to get the sparking blue to work. It wasn’t like he was practiced or had any idea how to use the magic coursing through his veins. He’d only accidently used it a few times without meaning too and then had slightly practiced it in private, when everyone in the house was asleep. Finally, the blue bursts and fizzles, Lance raises his hands, a hard electric blue shield of sorts forms in front of them, the blasts bouncing back off of it, hitting one of the drones, sending it limp to the ground. 

 

“Please,” Lance turns back to look at his family one last time, tears heavy in yellow filmed eyes. “Go.”

 

Keith watches his father’s heartbreak as he makes the decision, grabbing his mother, who limply lays in his arms, covering his chest with Galra blood, promptly scooping Keith up as well, holding him firmly to his shoulder. 

 

“No! No! We can’t leave him! Stop!” Keith screams, tears rolling hot and fat down his cheeks, banging his fists, trying to wiggle from his father’s grip. 

 

“It’s okay, we’ll see each other soon,” Lance manages a glance over his shoulder, his yellow eyes slowly fading away to let his familiar blue ones meet with Keith’s one last time. “Love you to the moon and back.”

 

“Love you to the stars,” Keith chokes out, his voice small and defeated, slumping over his father’s shoulder, as they disappear out of the door. 

 

Lance lets out one loud sob and then uses the rest of whatever energy he has left to drop the shield and strike all three of the remaining Galra as hard as he can with whatever he was creating, even he still wasn’t sure. A druid. He was a druid? 

 

Finally, the room quieted after the rhythmic thuds of the Galra to the wooden floor, yellow eyes staring off, glassy and unseeing. And for a moment everything is okay, Lance seeing the exit, he sees where his family just exited from, he sees the path he needs to take. But instead, the room begins to tilt and spin around him, his footsteps follow through messy and off balance, until finally he drops, falling unconscious only a few feet away from the dead Galra, a few thousand feet from his family. 

 

The team stands still in the remains of the battlefield, Lance’s extremely small body lying in glass and broken piece of furniture and keeps sakes, now shattered around them. “I-... damn,” Lance manages to stutter out. 

 

“This happened, somewhere in the universe, this actually happened,” Keith speaks, more to himself than to anyone else. 

 

Pidge goes to open her mouth but is interrupted by the swirling colors around them, spitting them back out somewhere completely different. A classroom, a familiar one at that. The feeling of the previous scene still hangs heavy over them as they observe the bustling Garrison classroom. Among the groups of chatting friends and lone students reading, there is Keith, sitting near the front, playing with a pencil all on his own, hair cut much shorter than it was now. 

 

Even though nothing changes, it’s like the room tenses as Lance walks in, hair cut in the standard first-year Garrison military haircut, same as basically every other boy in the classroom. Lance’s eyes scan the room, until they finally land of Keith, shoulder stiffening and rising up to his ears. After a few shaky breaths he manages to move his feet, until he in front of the desk behind Keith. 

 

“I-Is this seat taken?” Lance squeaks out, the anxiety making his throat tight. 

 

Keith slowly turns around in his seat, looking confused. “Uh, are you talking to me?”

 

“Yes?” Lance raises an eyebrow, hands shaking at Keith finally looks up to him. And he waits. He waits for some sort of sign of recognition, any shred of ‘oh hey we grew up together and you saved me and my parents’. Instead, Keith stares at him in indifference. 

 

“Nah, it’s not taken, seats all yours,” Keith mumbles, before beginning to turn back around.

 

“Uh, my name is Lance!” He practically yells out, getting some stares from other students around them. Keith stops suddenly, turning to look at him, eyes slightly wide, looking him up and down. 

 

“Lance?”

 

“Yeah,” Lance leans forward, hopeful. This could be the moment, the moment he’d dreamt of for years. After years of making sure he was still alive and okay, after years of being alone, after years of missing the family he used to have, this was it. They were finally back together. 

 

Keith stares at him for a few beats of silence, until he shakes his head, mumbling something to himself. “My name’s Keith. Try not to be too distracting,” He finally manages to get out before turning back around completely. And Lance deflates. Nothing, he got nothing. Did he even remember him? Probably not, it’d been so long ago. He was wrong to assume that he’d remember him at all. Stupid. He was an idiot. 

 

And then, in quick succession, things fly by them. Memories. Scenes. 

 

One with Lance sneaking out of the Garrison to roam the desert, ending up in their old shack a few times, pasting things up onto the walls. Maps, coordinates, data, random chicken scratch notes. Lance cleaning up the leftover glass and broken wood left there from so many years ago. Finding a picture in the rubble, two small boys on the shoulders of, now, two dead people, all of them smiling and happy. Oblivious, unaware. 

 

Another of Keith in the counselor's office of the Garrison, a women with a wrinkled face and a tight black bun sat before him, pen and pad in hand. “Have your nightmares of the Lance boy and the… aliens been continuing?”

 

“Not so… much anymore,” Keith replies. 

 

“Are we’re still clear on the fact that these aren’t real. Lance is a figment of your imagination, as well as these aliens… the Galra, they’re not real either. You, and everyone else on Earth, are human. Right?” The lady raises an eyebrow at Keith.

 

There’s a moment of silence, before he nods. “Right.”

 

One more, of Lance watching Keith getting kicked out, watching him move into the shack again, their old home, the faint recognition lit in his eyes of memories he’d tried his whole life to forget, to convince himself weren’t true. Lance’s maps and data of a ‘weird energy’ out in the middle of the desert still remained, peaking Keith’s interest. So, he picked up where Lance left off. 

 

And finally they were dropped in one firm, unmoving, moment. They’re all together now, in the castle of lions, just like before. 

 

Lance is catching Allura, but this time, instead of a sly pick-up line, he freezes at the sight of pointed ears, and colorful cheek marks. Marks and ears that he hadn’t revealed to anyone other than his reflection for years, characteristics that he still wasn’t sure where or who they belonged to. Druid, that’s what he was, at least that’s what that man, Kelov, so many years ago, had called him. But now, as Allura and Coran mumble the words Altean, he thinks he finally has found it. But then again, it’s followed by the familiar crushing disappointment when he hears the words 10,000 years and dead. The Galra had taken away yet another thing he thought maybe he had. 

 

So, he remains human, he remains the human Lance that everyone on team Voltron know him ask. He blocks out the memories of his childhood, replacing them with a fake family when they try to do bonding exercises. He risks his life for one of the last people alive in his species. He fights Galra again, just like when he was little. And all the while, he has to look at Keith, he has to be constantly reminded by him everyday that he doesn’t remember him. That the memories they had together, no longer were shared. They were lonely now. He watched him, wondering if he had any clue of his heritage, but he’s seen the way Keith looks at Sumire’s blade when he thinks no one else is in the room. Confusion and empty curiosity. He’d forgotten us all. 

 

Lance watches Keith and Shiro go into the Blades of Marmora base with a shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, he’d figure it out. That he’d remember. But when he comes back, bruised and bloodied, telling them about his new found information, still looking at Lance with that indifferent gaze that he was so accustomed too, he knew that he was still no one to him. 

 

It’s when they’re cornered that something changes. They’ve snuck onto a Galra base trying to find out information about Pidge’s family and where they could be when the mission goes south. Everything pointed to the base being just a regular ship full of prisoner and the occasional drone, but instead, it was one of the bases that held most of the remaining druids. They sensed their presence like sharks, cornering himself and Keith, who’d been split from the group and sent to do a round of surveillance. 

 

“Paladins of Voltron, so foolish,” One of them purred, hood covering their faces as they hovered around them, dauntingly. 

 

“What’s this, do you all feel that?” Another one speaks up, approaching the two of them who raise their bayards defensively. Hums of agreement come from the other druids. “These two aren’t of the same species as the other paladins.”

 

Keith’s eyes widen, whipping his head in Lance’s direction, who only stares forwards at the druid, eyes hard and gaze steely. “A Galra half-breed and…”

 

The druid’s eyes trail curiously over to Lance, letting their hood fall, raising a sharp eyebrow at him. “An Altean druid? How interesting.”

 

Keith chokes when the words are spoken, eyes widening almost impossibly wide. 

 

“Could it be that these two are the half-breed and druid child that caused so much trouble for Sumire and Kelov those few revolutions ago?” Another druid muses, making the other mutter among themselves. 

 

“There is no way this puny child was the one who killed Kelov and his men,” One voice raises above the others, accusing and angry. Lance’s gaze remains cold and hard, not sparing a glance to Keith who can’t take his eyes off of him. 

 

“Who is your mother, boy?” The druid before them asks. 

 

Lance tilts his chin slightly. “My mom died years ago and her name was, Sumire. That druid bitch is no mother of mine,” He growls out, dropping his bayard and letting his eyes become slick with clouded Galra yellow. The familiar blue glow begins to radiate from Lance’s hands, one that Keith only remembers seeing in his dreams, but is slowly coming back to him. Everything was real. Everything his therapists through the years, his caretakers, the orphanages, everything they told him was his own delusion was actually real. Lance was real and had been right in front of him this whole time. 

 

Lance let’s out a spiderweb of electricity, managing to strike all of the druids surrounding them, shocking them enough to give time for them to escape. Lance turns quickly to Keith who stands stunned. And as Lance’s eyes fade from yellow back to blue and he grabs his hand, yelling, “Go!” Keith is a child again. He watching as Lance fades in the distance, out of the door, watches him cry as he disappears with whom he had once called family. 

 

Then, they’re running and Lance is saying something into his helmet’s com, but Keith is somewhere else in his mind, trying to sort out what was real and what wasn’t. An explosion rocks the base somewhere, and then they’re inside Blue and Lance is muttering something to his lion, pushing buttons and then they’re off. Keith watches Lance, the boy who has saved his life multiple times now, the boy who had shared his childhood with him, the boy who he forgot, the boy he fell in love with. 

 

So when they finally are able to return to the castle and Keith has tried to sort through the boxes of reality and lie in his mind, all he can do is tackle Lance when they exit Blue, and it’s the best feeling he’s felt since he was a child, since he lost Lance. He’s crying before he even realizes it, hot tears and raw emotion that had been pent up and stored away for years, all exploding out of his chest at once. He places both hands on either side of Lance’s face, brushing the Altean cheek marks, that he seemed to forgot about, with his thumbs. “Is this real? Are you real?”

 

Lance hurriedly nods. “I’m real. I’m real. Do you remember?”

 

Keith lets out a laugh and a sob at the same time. “I do! I remember! I’m so sorry, they told me- they all told me that you-” 

 

Lance just pulls him in, both of them crying and sharing the feeling of years of pain, of loneliness, sharing each other’s pain of not knowing that they were so close or having to pretend for so much. They were back together, finally. 

 

“I did promise you we’d meet again. I never break a promise,” Lance mumbles, making Keith stare up at him, eyes blow wide and full of glistening tears. Then, Keith’s hands are pulling his face towards his own and their kissing. It’s short but god is it full of so much emotion, so much love. They’re home now. They’re not alone. They’re here together, finally. 

 

The team lets out a breath together, of happiness and relief for the two boys in this universe. Even though they specificly didn’t exist in this universe, they didn’t experience it, they could imagine the pain felt by both of them and to be together finally. Keith was even happy for himself, happy that he was finally with Lance again. The cold feeling that encased the part of his heart that held his emotions for Lance was slowly beginning to thaw out. Maybe there was more to him then he’d originally pegged. Perhaps… seeing them kiss or be in a relationship in other universes and realities wasn’t the farthest stretch. Maybe Lance wasn’t that bad. Maybe a life, a love, with Lance wouldn’t be that bad. 

  
Maybe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah, sorry if this felt really rushed, it kind of was because i just really wanted to get this chapter OUT of the way. I was super excited to write it originally but then I just got really overwhelmed and got writers block when it came to it and school is coming to an end so i have to work my ass off rn and don't have much time to write. I hope you guys still like this.


	6. a hero just like you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SUPER TRIGGER WARNING YALL this chapter includes mentions of self-harm, attempted suicide, talks of suicide, blood, and panic attacks. 
> 
> sometimes the person you least expect is just like you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING  
> mentions of self-harm, attempted suicide, talks of suicide, blood, and panic attacks.  
> please please please don't read this if it's going to trigger you in any way.
> 
> also sorry that it took so long for me to update, i was busy with a coding camp and finishing up school.

The new building they are suddenly in is quiet and, from the looks of it, big. They’re stood, all grouped together, in a wide white hallway, doors lined against either side of the wall. “This shit is really tiring,” Lance mumbles, running a hand through his hair. “I just wish we could go back to the castle and just… sleep.”

 

“Maybe next time you’ll think twice before pressing buttons when you don’t know what they do,” Hunk chastised, and honestly, Lance couldn’t even disagree with him on that one. He had a point. 

 

The distant sound of chatter makes them all turn towards one end of the hall, where Hunk and Pidge are turning the corner and heading their way from what looks like a common area. Pidge’s hands are moving quickly, flailing as she explains something to Hunk who nods enthusiastically back. As they get closer and closer to them, their voices become more clear and they’re able to tell they’re talking about one of the new Star Wars movies. Finally, they near a door, which everyone just now seemed to notice had a poster covered in colorful paints and stickers with Hunk and Lance’s names painted on it, both in respective yellow and blue. Pidge and Hunk are still laughing and talking as Hunk turns the doorknob, turning to enter their room, only stuttering to a stop his eyes wide. Pidge seems to notice the color that drains from Hunk’s face, stopping mid word to glance into the room, but just as Pidge is able to catch a glimpse of the scene inside, Hunk’s large hands are over her eyes, turning her into his chest. Hunk’s face is a mix of horrified and panicked, an overwhelming disbelief and sadness pull tears onto his waterline. Whatever was just found in that room that they can’t see, Lance knows it’s going to be bad. Really bad. 

 

He manages to pull a thrashing Pidge away from the door all while keeping her from looking back in the room. Then, Hunk begins yelling, at the top of his lungs. “Help! Someone! Please help! God, hurry! The-there’s so much-,” And suddenly Hunk is looking green as he briefly looks back into the room, stumbling back with Pidge. 

 

“Let me go! Let me go! I have to help him,” Pidge is wailing, trying to escape Hunk’s strong arms but miserably failing. Tears beginning to well up in her eyes, heavily spilling down her cheeks, making Hunk bring her closer to his chest, as if maybe, if he held her tight enough, she wouldn’t have to see, she wouldn’t have to feel the pain, that she’d be protected from all of this. 

 

And then Shiro is running out of an office at the end of the hall, Coran following shortly behind, both of them wearing matching nurse scrubs. They both skid to a stop, taking in Hunk and Pidge’s states before running quickly down to them. Coran yells a few things over his shoulders to someone else in the office they came from. 

 

Shiro finally reaches the two of them, all huddled together, terrified and teary. “It’s-” Hunk begins to say to him but Shiro is already beginning to run into the room, but his feet seem to get caught on something invisible as he passes the door frame, his muscles becoming stiff and frozen. His eyes are widened and glassy, mouth slightly parted in shock. It doesn’t last long as Coran pushes past him. “Go get Hunk and Katie away from the door, I don’t want them to see more than they already have,” Coran demands to Shiro, seeming to knock him out of his trance, before disappearing into the room. 

 

Shiro, albeit as pale as a ghost, seemed to recovering, turning back to Hunk and Pidge who watch the door in anticipation. “Hunk, Pidge, you have to move back, alright? You don’t want to see-”

 

He’s cut off by a door, almost directly across the hall from Hunk and Lance’s room, bursting open, a disheveled and wide eyed Keith standing in the doorway, peering at the scene before him as more nurses rush into Hunk and Lance’s room. He seems to look at Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge all individually, taking in their expressions all hurt and pale and terrified and he just knows. His face sinks and his mouth opens like a fish trying to gasp for air. 

 

“Keith-” Hunk begins to choke out.

 

“Why are there nurses going into your room? Where’s Lance, Hunk?” Keith begins to spill out, question after question and when Hunk doesn’t reply, he’s suddenly on the move, darting out of his room and for the door that led to all of the commotion. But he doesn’t get far and they watch as Shiro hooks his non-prosthetic arms around Keith’s tiny waist, pulling him back against his chest. “Let me go! I have to see him, I have to make sure he’s okay! Let me go Shiro!”

 

Keith’s yelling echos throughout the hallway, making a few other doors open as people watched the chaos unfold. Shiro struggled with holding Keith’s twisting and thrashing limbs, one of his pointy little elbows stabbing him in the chest while another hits him in the jaw at the same time, still he keeps his hold on him. And then it all stills. It’s like all of the oxygen, all of the heat, everything in the room, just disappears and everyone is frozen in place as Coran rushes out of the room and past them with a body in his arms. A limp one at that. Keith watches with wide eyes because holy shit Coran is  _ covered _ in blood. They all watch in shock as Coran carries Lance’s body past all of them, and if they thought Coran was covered in blood, it was nothing compared to Lance, whose clothes were stained in the dark red, almost black, spare a few blue and gray patches in his pants and shirt that remained unsoaked by the blood. Still, some of it was even on his face, bloody fingerprints on his left cheek, staining his brown face, even some of his curly brown hair was clumped together with the thick substance. And god, Lance looked bad. Really bad. He was extremely pale and completely limp, looking extremely small in Coran’s arms. His eyes are closed, but you can still see where Lance’s eyelashes brush against dark purple bags under his eyes, now even more noticeable with the paleness of his cheeks. 

 

“Lance, my boy, you have to stay with me okay, we’re almost there, then we’re getting you patched up, don’t you leave us,” Coran says firmly to Lance as he jogs away and that’s all it takes, a lil dislodging of the placement of his loose body and one of Lance’s arms falls from where it had been rested on his chest. Giving them full display to his wrists where the sleeve of his blue baseball shirt had been torn open to reveal-  _ Oh.  _

 

Their whole group draws in short breathes, faces equally as pale as their replicas around them, eyes glassy and in shock. Lance himself felt weighed down, watching himself, half-dead being carried away from him. The blood, it reeked of it, left small droplets on the floor as Coran rounded a corner with him still in his arms, wrist tucked back on his chest. That’s when everything pieced together, just exactly where they were. The endless hallway of doors, the common room, Coran and Shiro and all the other nurses on call. This was a mental hospital. He’d just seen himself be taken away because he had  _ attempted suicide  _ in an institution. Lance let’s out a shaky breath, backing up and managing to knock into Keith, startling them enough to knock them out of staring at the spot Coran and the other Lance had once been. Keith meets his eyes and there's something unfamiliar and so raw swimming in the raven-haired boys indigo eyes. It’s like Keith was looking at him for the first time in his life, like he’d just bumped into a stranger on the street, and he was looking at him with fresh eyes. Alive, Keith reminded himself, Lance was still alive. 

 

Keith made a checklist in his head, his eyes roamed over Lance’s body as he went through it. Was he breathing? Yes. Blinking? Sort of. Standing right in front of you? Yep. Covered in blood? No, thank god. And then Keith reached for Lance’s wrist’s, taking them in his hands and before Lance could protest, he yanked up the sleeves of his jacket and shirt all in one go, revealing the pale side of his wrist, that was still a beautiful olive brown shade. Ok, cuts? No. Scars? N-. Keith was going to continue but inside as his eyes roamed Lance’s wrist, he couldn’t finish his answer because there, across Lance’s wrist’s- that he was just now realizing Lance never seemed to show- were puffy, shiny scars. Okay, maybe he was just clumsy? Keith tried to reason. Or maybe he had a really vicious cat when he was growing up? But these scars looked… purposeful, they dashed across his skin like they had always belonged there, like they owned that part of Lance. Some were more faded and less puffy than other, but some, you could tell used to be really deep and probably took a long time to heal. Keith, let out a silent breath, as he made notice that none of these looked very recent at all, but still, that didn’t erase the weight of his discovery. 

 

“What the fuck, Keith!” Lance growled out, yanking both of his arms from Keith’s clutches, making Keith look up to see Lance’s face twist with anger and embarrassment. Keith stared back at him with a mix of emotions: innocence, apology, pain, and… sympathy. Actually, on second thought, he probably was pitying him. Lance didn’t need Keith’s fucking pity. Keith opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by a loud scream, making them both jump and turn their head to the Keith replica beginning to reboot in Shiro’s arms. His hands were thrashing and punching and hitting and scratching, leaving Shiro red and bleeding in some places, but he doesn’t let go, only sliding them back to the floor, Keith pressed extremely close to Shiro’s chest, both of Shiro’s arms crossed over Keith’s chest, hands grabbing at Keith’s wrists to lock him in place from scratching anymore. “No! No! Let me fucking go! I have to see him! He’s- I have to, Shiro! Let me fucking go! You’re the worst person in the whole world, Lance could be dying right now and I’ll never be able to see him ever again and you’re holding me to the floor! Please, Shiro, You have to- you have to let me see him, I can’t let him die. I can’t, he can’t die. Please, Shiro,” Keith’s yelling and cursing slowly lowers down into deep painful sobs, chest heaving up and down, hot tears flowing down his cheeks and landing on Shiro’s arms.”He’s all I have left, he’s all I have.”

 

Shiro shushed him, running a hand through Keith’s sweaty hair, rocking them back and forth on the floor. “Sh, sh, it’s going to be okay, everything is going to be okay. Lance will be alright, I promise.”

 

“I can’t lose him. There was so-so-s-s-o much blood, he was covered in b-b-blood,” Keith tries to get out but it comes out in a myriad of stutters and broken words. It hurt all of them to watch the scene before them, meanwhile Hunk tried to calm down Pidge, whose sobs would not stop coming, all while he himself was beginning to panic. 

 

“Keith, listen to me, you have to calm down, stop thinking about what you saw, it will only make you panic more,” Shiro instructed through Keith’s heaving breaths. “Tell me what you see right now.”

 

“I-I, god, I see… the hallway, all of the doors, the-the office, I see your office, I se-e Pidge and Hunk.. they’re crying, I-I see blood, I see Lance’s blood,” Keith went from doing good, straight be back down into bad again, sobs getting caught on his hyperventilating. 

 

More nurses were rushing down the hall to where they were stood, some heading towards Hunk and Pidge, ushering them somewhere else, while others began to help Shiro with Keith. One man nurse inched towards them, making eye contact with Shiro, who shifted to hold Keith’s flailing limbs more securely, before bringing out a needle full of some clear medicine. When Keith’s eyes catch sight of the shining needle, he stills for a moment, before beginning to yell and fling himself about even more so, trying to get away. 

 

“Stop! No!” He yelps out, eyes looking around him like a trapped animal. As if in one last resort for freedom, he sinks his teeth into the top of Shiro’s forearm ruthlessly, making Shiro’s eyes widen, jerking slightly but still holding his resolve.

 

“God damnit, Keith,” Shiro swore, turning his gaze to glare at the shocked nurse with the needle. “Hurry the fuck up, what are you waiting for?” 

 

The nurse jerks at being scolded, pushing the needle into Keith’s bicep. Keith unlatches his mouth from Shiro arm to let out a yelp, trying to jerk away from the needle, but he was too late. His movements beginning to slow and eyes starting to droop. His eyes lazily roll towards where the group of them were still standing watching this Keith in shock. His mouth is full of blood, coating the tips of his teeth and one bead of it rolling over his lip, making him look even more like a crazed animal then before. His familiar eyes seem to make contact with each of them, before landing on Lance. 

 

“Lance,” He mumbles slowly, Shiro reaching up to comb sweaty hair away from his face with his uninjured arm, and finally his eyes fall shut and body going completely limp in Shiro’s arms. With a loud sigh, Shiro manages to stand himself up, caring Keith bridal style, who is just as limp as the Lance from earlier was in Coran’s arms, but not as nearly covered in blood. Still, they almost looked like a pair. 

 

“M-Mr. Shirogane, are you okay?” The nurse from earlier, stutters, still holding the used needle in their hands. 

 

“I’m fine,” Shiro grumbles back, turning to them with eyes of steel and a snarl on his lips. “But not thanks to you. Next time you decide to stand around while a distressed patient assaults your senior nurse, I’ll make sure you don’t have another chance to do so. The rest of you, shouldn’t you be working on cleaning Lance’s room and directing all the rest of the patients to mandatory counseling?”

 

The rest of the three nurses blink back at him before finally jumping into action, two of them bumping into each other before heading in opposite directions. Shiro turns slowly back to the cowering nurse who he’d originally been scolding. “You’re dismissed.”

 

“Scary,” Pidge mumbles, watching the nurse turn away like a dog with their tail between their legs. 

 

“Lance,” Keith whispers, trying to get the tan boy’s attention, but his eyes were trained forward, clearly trying to ignore him. “Can you please stop ignoring me? I wanna talk about-”

 

Finally, Lance breaks, turning towards him in a flash. “Mind your own business, Keith. It doesn’t matter what you saw or think you saw, just forget it okay?”

“But-” He begins to protest. He couldn’t just simply let something that held so much weight just go like that. 

 

“Can you just get your nose out of my fucking business?” Lance snapped back, eyes cold as ice. His tone of voice making Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk turn to the two of them in surprise but they were unable to question the fight beginning between the two as the world began to spin and fly past them, giving the same dizzying, off balance feeling as it had when they’d travelled through time before. Then, suddenly they were in a white room, sunlight streaming in through a window to their right, flowers on a table to their left, right next to a hospital bed. 

 

“Listen, Lance,” A heavy sigh is heard, directing their attention to where Shiro is standing, leaning up against a wall on the other side of the bed. Lance is sitting up, head turned downward, picking at the bandaged around his wrists. “I’m not going to force you to see Keith if you truly don’t want to but… Keith is quite literally going insane without seeing for himself that you’re okay. He’s destroyed his room twice in the past week, has assaulted two nurses, and almost hit Pidge… He’s on suicide watch Lance.”

 

The last words make Lance flint, squeezing his eyes shut, taking deep steady breaths in through his nose. “Are you saying that's my fault?” Lance says stiffly, looking at Shiro through his eyelashes. 

 

The question makes Shiro’s eyes widen instantly, because it did kind of sound like that what he was getting at. “No, no, Lance, I just… Keith is… he’s like a brother to me and-”

 

“And he’s your favorite patient and the only reason he’s still staying here with how he’s acting is because of you and that’s putting a strain on your position as a nurse,” Lance raises an eyebrow, making Shiro tense up. He always forgets how smart Lance really is. “So, you want me to suck it up and let Keith see me because his stay here and your job are on the line?”

 

“Uh-” Shiro is left speechless because quite honestly, even without him fully realizing, what Lance said was partially true. Keith should’ve been kicked out or moved to a new facility months ago, and even more so now, but because of Shiro talking to the head of their board, he has managed to keep Keith where he was, but honestly now it was becoming impossible. One more of Keith’s slip ups and Shiro would have decide between a brother or his job. “Lance, I… I don’t talk about this a lot because it’s kind of unprofessional and can make patients take advantage of me, but four years ago I was right where you were right now.”

 

Lance’s eyebrows perk up at his words, becoming interested. “What do you mean?”

 

“I was a patient here, I knew Pidge’s brother-”

 

“You mean the same one that is the reason she’s admitted here?”

 

“Yeah, Matt. Has Pidge ever told you what happened to him?”

 

“Uh, it’s a touchy topic, I never asked, she never told, we had kind of a mutual agreement with those sorts of things,” Lance replies. 

 

“Well, he died, in a car crash. Him and I were really close, I mean… really close-”

 

“So, he was your boyfriend?” Lance raises an eyebrow, a small smirk hinting at his lips when Shiro begins to blush. Pidge glances over at their own Shiro, seeing his face flush, eyes turned to the floor. 

 

“Yeah, he was and I was the one driving the night he died,” Shiro blurts, making the room still.

 

“Oh,” Lance mumbles.

 

“Yeah… I lost my arm in the wreck but there's not a moment I don’t wish I had lost more… ya know? So, I was admitted to here when I was twenty for PTSD and for dealing with the loss of my arm, all that jazz. But, I couldn’t help the thought that I was the one who was supposed to die that night, not Matt, that maybe if I… if I fixed that, that everything would be okay? So, I tried to. To fix it that is,” Shiro pauses, running a thumb across the healing bite mark on his forearm while Lance stared at him with a mix of disbelief and curiosity.

 

“So you tried to kill yourself too?” He asked it so casually, as if it was something that most people tried out at some point in their life, like green apple vodka or weed.

 

“Yeah, I guess so. Never had the guts to do it how you did though,” Shiro peeked up at him, glancing slightly at his wrists and then back up to his eyes. 

 

“Maybe a part of you still wanted to live,” Lance suggests.

 

“And a part of you doesn’t?” Shiro questions. Lance doesn’t reply. “Either way, I’m still here. And a few weeks after it all, Keith was admitted here. He was only fourteen at the time, his orphanage had enough of him and won a court battle with enough shitty evidence to convince them he was mentally unstable and handed him over to this place, he’s been here ever since. Coran was my nurse at the time and assigned me to be his sort of big brother caretaker,” Shiro laughs, shaking his head. “He said it’d help me recover and give me responsibility and a reason to keep going and God, I hate him so much for it at the time and I hated Keith even more. For a while it only made it worse, Keith was always there and if he wasn’t then a nurse was always there, or I had counseling and someone was always just asking if I was okay or if I felt like killing myself still. Then, one day Keith did something and I’m not sure what happened but I guess I snapped, I don’t remember it at all but I came to being held back by three nurses and Keith was just staring at me with this look in his eye, he looked so terrified.

 

“They didn’t let me see Keith for six months, I was locked in detention for a month too, but even when I did get out they kept Keith on the opposite side of the building from me. At first I felt like a monster, my one responsibility was to take care of this kid but then I ended up hurting him. Then, one night, at like one am, I heard a knock on my door and I opened it to find Keith, standing there with two stolen cookies from the cafeteria and a pendent he said he’d carved himself. He had come there to tell me that he forgave me, even though I had never apologized or made any effort to make it up to him, he still gave back to me and forgave me for what I did. It was in that moment that something changed in me. I made it my goal to get better as much as I possibly could. I made the hospital realize I was okay to be around Keith again, I began to take college classes online to be able to come here as a nurse, and although I’m not completely fixed, I never will be, I’m still here. I’m living and for once in my life I can say I think Matt would be proud that I survived,” Shiro takes a deep breath after his long story, shyly looking up to Lance. 

 

Lance runs a hand through his greasy curls, eyelashes brushing his bags as he blinks. “No offense Shiro, I mean that story is really touching and inspiring, especially coming from someone like you, since I look up to you so much, but… why are you telling  _ me _ this?” 

 

Shiro smiles, leaning over to squeeze Lance’s shoulder and lean in to gently press a kiss to Lance’s forehead. “So you know you’re not alone, people care about you. Keith will forgive you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Think about seeing him, okay?”

 

Lance blinks slightly, rubbing quickly at his arms with the back of his hand. “Alright,” He mumbles, finally looking up, eyes glossy. “Thank you, Takashi.”

 

And that’s how this one ended.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if this was a little much but it's out there now. will i ever make a chapter where keith doesn't cry? probably not.  
> also this isn't me shipping shance, i dont ship any shaladin, but i do love the idea of shiro being a Sweet Guy to lance and them having a nice sort of brotherly supportive relationship.
> 
> these are some of my ideas for stories that i'm gonna do next. so lemme which idea i should do for next chapter  
> -klance parents (the first soft sweet one)  
> -steven universe au  
> -fusion au (different from the steven universe one)  
> -voltron band au  
> -the last of us au  
> -life is strange au


	7. humongous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: talks of self-harm
> 
> also shiro is a sexy singing motherfucker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: talks of self harm and scar description  
> i know what ur thinking- two updates in two days?! wtf, chloe must be on some sort of something to actually be writing, but i assure you the only thing im on is pure boredom.  
> also, a lot of you last chapter asked for steven universe/fusion au and i promise that it's coming but i had to get this idea out of my head and wrap up some info from the last chapter bc of reasons.
> 
> also the songs used in this chapter are as follows:  
> Humongous by Declan McKenna  
> Indigo by Kississippi  
> Liquid Smooth by Mitski  
> I HIGHLY reccomend listening to all of these while reading because holy shit are they good songs but if you imagine the voltron kiddos singing them it makes it even better 
> 
> also i included some old band au klance i drew to help set the mood for this chapter! enjoy!

THE SONG LINKS: [1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzMaDCAaVyw), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67d6wsneTU), [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfurc6KcMwk) (u should definitely listen while you read)

 

The next universe they get dropped into comes with a rather rude awakening, full of loud cheering, the sound of cymbals crashing together, and the fading buzz of an amp. As their eyes begin to adjust to their darkened surroundings, they begin to notice the space around them is full of people, all crashing into them in a crowd, smushing them all together. Hunk gets pushed up against Pidge’s back, making her stumble into Keith, who dominos into Lance and Shiro’s shoulders with a groan. The loud screams and shouting around them seems to drown out even their own thoughts just by sheer volume. “You’re coming up here,” Hunk mumbles, grabbing Pidge under the armpits and easily lifting her onto his shoulders, despite their squawking. “Can’t have you getting lost.”

 

Pidge lets out a hum that’s quickly lost in the noise, only for her eyes to finally take in the full view of the stage ahead of her, that she previous hadn’t been able to see. “No way,” She gapes.

 

“What?” Hunk questions, glancing up to her before trying to see what she was looking at. It didn’t take long for his question to be answered.

 

“Alright everybody! I wanna thank all of you for coming out to see us!” Hunk instantly sees the Lance on stage, followed by his attention being grabbed by the rest of the band around him. It’s all of them, each on separate instruments, looking… well, for lack of better words, _badass._ The crowd responds with loud applause. The Lance on stage saunters about in front of the mic, a chuckle falling from his lips. “Our next song is called Humongous, I hope you like it!”

 

Lance backs away slightly from the mic, leaning back around to nod his head at Keith, who stands at the ready with a cherry red electric guitar in hand. At Lance’s signal, his fingers strum along the guitar, making a perfect chord ring through the air around them. Not long after the first note by Keith, Lance is leaning back into the microphone, which he cradles between both of his palms, eyes half closed, and begins to sing. “Don’t tag me along to your show, to your broadcast, I know,” The voice that comes from Lance’s mouth is surprisingly sultry and pleasant. Keith won’t admit it, but he sure is glad it was dark in the venue their replicas were performing because… well… Lance looks damn good. His lips dragged lazily across the metal screening of the mic, a flowy white button up unbuttoned halfway down his chest, framing his tan chest that peaked through it, tucked into back skinny jeans, and to top it off, a ripped jean jacket. He looked like a rock star. He was a rock star. Keith didn’t know if he liked that or not. “I’m good at letting go. And then tag me along with your rules, and with your promise. I swear you spend too much time on your phone and on your hair.”

 

Lance smirks, jerking his head towards where Keith was obliviously playing guitar beside him, making the crowd scream back at his small gesture. With a laugh, he leans forward into the mic, “Do you care? I’m big, humongous, enormous, and small. I'm big, humongous, enormous and small, and it's not fair that I am nothing and nobody's there. Do you care?”

 

The rest of them stood up on stage look just as much like rock stars as Lance does. Keith sways, hair hung down into his eyes, a flowery button down completely open, display a chest scattered with small tattoos. Shiro, stood opposite side of Lance, is dressed in a simple white tank top, putting his special prosthetic arm for playing bass on show for the whole audience, a small smile playing at his lips as he gets lost in the sound of their music. Pidge, meanwhile, bounces up and down, shaking their while mop of hair around as they move their fingers wildly across keyboarding and synthesizers, sporting a green tank top underneath a fitting black blazer, black shorts, and ripped sheer black tights. Then Hunk, completely engrossed in their sound, large grin across his face as he bangs against the drums, his movements sending his hair in an array through the air.

 

Lance opens his eyes partially, scanning the crowd, nodding his head side to side, tossing his curling hair back and forth. “Don't tell me I'm not, I'm not smart or I'm not worthy I know, I couldn't let that go. And then tag me along with your hate and with your envy. Dear God, I cannot take you anywhere,” Lance rolls his eyes at the crowd, doing a quick spin around the stage, removing the microphone for it’s stand to dance wildly around.

 

Stood upon an amp before the crowd, several teenage girls near him scream in a panic, pushing forward to at least get a brush at even his shoes as he sings. “Do you care? I’m big, humongous, enormous, and small. I'm big, humongous, enormous and small, and it's not fair that I am nothing and nobody's there. Do you care?”

 

Lance laughs, stepping off the amp and blowing a kiss to the girls in the front as Keith takes a step towards center stage, beginning to move his fingers at a fast pace, nodding his head, shaking his hair in and out of his eyes. As the solo comes to an end, Keith looks up as Lance begins to approach him, fingers pausing in a break between the instruments, leaving only Pidge and Hunk to accompany Lance’s vocals. Lance smirks as he nears Keith’s face, lifting the mic to his lips while still standing mere inches away from Keith, who looks almost dangerous in the red stage lights on the two of them. “Do you care?” Lance raises an eyebrow playfully at Keith who simply stares back at him, fingers hovering and waiting for his queue. The crowd is going insane at this point, pushing and shoving around like waves during a storm. “I’m big, humongous, enormous, and small. And it’s not fair, that I am nothing and nobody’s there. Do you care?!”

 

Keith’s hand raises as Lance sings out the word ‘care’ beginning to viciously thrash against the strings of his guitar, finally letting a smile grace his lips as Lance’s grins and bounces away from him, both of them dancing around each other vigorously in time of each push of Keith’s hand across the chords. Keith headbangs, curling in on his guitar the long he continues. Shiro begins to shimmy about, the plucking of his fingers becoming more excited. Finally Shiro and Keith time out, taking a break as Pidge takes her solo, accompanied by Hunk’s skilled drumming. The electronic sounds of her piano really build up suspense and it’s almost like the whole crowd is electrified, waiting to spark. Lance still remains twisting and dancing on the stage while Keith watches him with a grin.

 

Then, everything changes back, Lance suddenly right in front of Keith once more, staring directly into each other's eyes like a showdown. “Don't speak, don’t be so broken and weak,” Lance and Keith sing together, while Keith’s fingers still expertly move up and down the neck of his guitar.

 

“I’m gonna throw up,” Lance almost speak-sings.

 

“Well baby when will you grow up!” Keith smiles as both Lance and himself sing the last few lines, bopping his head forward, sending his dark hair into Lance’s face and brushing the mic between them. “You’ve been such a joke this week!”

 

“You think you’re funny, when you’re talkin’ all loud and your nose is all runny,” Lance sings the last line alone this time, smirking and dipping in to catch Keith’s lips in his, sending the crowd fucking insane around them, and even themselves watching in the crowd can’t help but gape. Even more impressively, Keith continues to play the guitar in the closing bits of the song, even with Lance latched onto his face.

 

They pull apart finally as Pidge’s fingers play the last few keys and Lance dances back to center stage with a cocky smile on his face. The crowd cheers and screams all around them and honestly they should all be used to Keith and Lance kissing at this point, but kissing on stage in front of a crowd was a bit… extra. Albeit the crowd seemed to be gobbling it up.

 

“Well, well, well ladies and gents, you’re in for quite a treat tonight,” Lance speaks into the mic, voice dripping with overconfidence and a cockiness that hadn’t been there before they had performed. Whether that was subject to the kiss he just had or performing the song, no one could know- probably both. The audience mostly replied with yells back, some with a few crude remarks. “For the first time in Voltron history, Pidge, Hunk, and I, have officially convinced our very own Keith and Shiro to sing their own songs tonight!”

 

Lance holds both his arms out, stepping back as the crowd loses their minds. Now, Lance has been to his fair share of concerts before but this audience was comparable to a One Direction audience, and that's saying something. Shiro and Keith both share bashful glances under all the attention. “First up, please welcome Keith to the mic,” Lance smiles as Keith approaches his place, guitar still slung over his shoulder. The Lance on stage gives Keith’s butt a quick slap, earning Lance a feverish glare in return. “Go get em.”

 

Keith let’s out a sigh as Lance trades places with him, picking up his own blue guitar from off stage, beginning to play with the tuning. Keith nervously runs a hand through his sweaty bangs, sending them askew all across his forehead. “Uh, hey, I’m Keith,” The audience screams back. “Obviously most of you already knew that. Uhm, I usually don’t do this, I’m not a singer, so… but I’m still going to sing a song I wrote a while back,” He fiddles with the knobs on his own guitar as he speaks. “It’s from back when I was first getting into the relationship I’m in now-”

 

“Lance!” Someone screams from the audience, making Lance look up with a smug smile. Keith scoffs, rolling his eyes but still smiling fondly.

 

“Yeah, him. Anyways, it was about wishing I wasn’t falling for him because he’s ugly and smells-”

 

“Hey!”

 

“But still loving falling for him.”

 

“Wait, awe, babe-”

 

“This is a song called Indigo, enjoy,” Keith quickly cuts off Lance, making the audience laugh. Keith’s fingers pluck along strings for a few stanzas until finally stepping forward and beginning to sing. And for not being a singer, his voice was surprisingly imposing.

 

“I can't stop thinking about how nice it would be to be bothered by your breath reclaiming mine,” He continues to sing and play completely on his own. “To wake up in the morning half dead to you, unable to find a place to rest your arms.”

 

Finally, the rest of the stage lights up with an indigo light as the rest of the band join in with him, Shiro nodding along as he smoothly slides up and down the neck of his black bass. Even Lance is playing along now, his own long fingers stumbling across strings with less expertise than Keith or Shiro, but still equally as good.

 

“I can't move 'cos he's comfortable there,” Keith is much less off a stage personality then Lance, but he still moves beautiful as he sings and plays, hips swaying and long hair catching on his eyelashes, and Lance tries to ignore the butterflies travelling through his stomach and beating against his chest. “His legs tangled in mine, hands tangled in hair.”

 

The song is short and repetitive but extremely sweet and skillful, fading out nicely and the crowd’s encouragement makes Keith look up, shyly brushing his hair from his eyes, nodding gratefully back to them as he smoothly switches places with Shiro, who moves towards the mic.

 

“This thing on,” Shiro apprehensively taps the microphone. The audience laughs back at him. “Alright, I can’t stall forever. Lance wrote this song for me so, uh, I guess here goes nothing- Oh! Won’t been needing this I guess,” Shrugging off his bass guitar and handing it off to Keith who places it safely on a guitar stand.

 

Shiro takes his place back at the microphone, clearing his throat as the lights begin to dim, a soft spotlight shining down on Shiro. Pidge begins to play a slow piano and the audience hushes, giving Shiro a moment of peace to close his eyes and breath before singing.

 

Honestly the voice that comes out of Shiro shouldn’t be much a surprise as it is, but holy shit Lance can feel his whole body blush at the first word that Shiro sings. His voice is deep and husky and just so- Wow. He’s gonna have to thank himself in this universe for writing this song for Shiro. “I’m beautiful, I know cause it’s the season. But what am I to do with all this beauty?” Shiro’s eyes remain closed and still as he continues. “Biology, I am an organism, I’m chemical, that’s all, that is all.”

 

Shiro brings both of his hands up to cup the mic, eyebrows pinching together as his hips begin to sway along to Hunk’s steady drumming entering the song. “I’m liquid smooth, come touch me, too. And feel my skin is plump and full of life, I’m in my prime. I’m liquid smooth, come touch me too, I’m at my highest peak, I’m ripe, about to fall, capture me.

 

“Or at least, take my picture, kuzurete yuku maeni. I’m pulsing, my blood is red and unafraid of living, beginning to end,” The crowd is completely interrupted by the seductive nature of Shiro’s voice and movements. It’s like they’re all listening to a siren song and honestly death wouldn’t be so bad right now. Lance could quite pathetically admit he’d let Shiro kill him in this moment. “I’m liquid smooth, come touch me, too. And feel my skin is plump and full of life, I’m in my prime. I’m liquid smooth, come touch me too, I’m at my highest peak, I’m ripe, about to fall.”

 

Surprisingly, without them originally realizing, Lance begins to play a violin along with Shiro’s singing, bringing the song to it’s full capacity, filling it completely. “How I feel this river rushing through my veins with nowhere else to go, it circles 'round,” As Shiro sings the chorus once more, Keith and Pidge adding beautiful harmonizes behind it. The piano fading away into Shiro’s voice and the crowd is left in a momentary stunned silence before even Lance himself erupts into loud applause and shouts, making Hunk, Pidge, and even Keith join in, making both Shiro’s bashfully smile and blush.

 

As Lance begins to speak to the crowd once more, distracting the crowd and the rest of the crowd just long enough that gives Keith an opening to grab Lance and drag him away from all the noise. Lance lets out a loud shout, looking to Keith in surprise and annoyance as he drags him away from the excitement that he was enjoying. Though, Keith’s grip is surprisingly strong and after a few minutes of trying to break his hold, he just gives up, until he’s finally pushed into a one person bathroom, Keith locking the door behind the both of them.

 

Lance nervously chuckles. “Listen, Keith, I know all of this weird universe stuff may be getting to your head but-”

 

Keith turns around, a man on a mission as he grabs Lance’s wrists, making the words on his lips stutter to a stop waiting in anticipation for the next move as his back is pushed against the wall behind him. “K-Keith-”

 

And for the first time in Lance’s near-adult life, he’s actually surprised that Keith doesn’t kiss him, and maybe mildly disappointed, but that’s a thought for another time. Instead Keith pushes up the sleeves to his shirt, revealing the information Lance had briefly forgotten Keith knew. There was no escaping it now, Keith quite literally had him corner and a pinned down. The scars were affronting him, shining and near glistening in the fluorescent bathroom light. Honestly, he tried not to look at them a lot now, it was easier to forget them with the more battle scars he got, the meaning behind these specific ones getting drowned around the stories behind others.

 

“Why?” And when Keith looks up, where Lance had expected to see anger, instead he saw sadness.

 

Lance sighs, shaking his head. “I was sad, it was my way with dealing with it I guess,” He shrugs.

 

“I was a sad kid too, Lance, but I never… I never did this,” Keith shakes his head, running a  thumb across a particularly puffed up scar.

 

“You get angry and take it out on the walls in your room, I know because I can hear it sometimes, the walls aren’t sound proof enough to hear your banging in the middle of the night,” Lance mumbles, making Keith duck his head at being caught. “And I did this. We all cope differently.”

 

“But this isn’t healthy or good at all,” Keith pipes up.

 

“And that’s why I don’t do it anymore,” Lance counters.

 

Keith is silent for a while, before peaking up through his eyelashes. “Promise?”

 

And it’s something in that look that makes Lance say it without even thinking. “Promise.”

 

Keith nods, turning his gaze back onto his tattered forearms. “When did you start?”

 

“When I was around thirteen I think.”

 

“Why?”

 

“My dad wasn’t around, I was getting old enough to blame myself for that, add on coming to terms with my sexuality in a community known for not being that accepting of it and it’s a cocktail for self-hate,” Lance chuckles but Keith doesn’t seem to find it funny at all.

 

“When did you stop?”

 

“A few months before you got kicked out of the garrison,” The sentence makes Keith’s head snap up.

 

“That wasn’t that long ago,” Keith’s voice is laced with worry and disbelief. Maybe that it had gone on for so long, or that Lance had only just recently cut the habit, that this sadness has just recently been brewing inside of him, and quite possibly still there. Lance nods back at him. “What made you stop?”

 

“Hunk found me in the bathroom, it was after a test I had flunked that determined if I could get moved up to fighter class. It was a dream, always was my dream to be a fighter pilot, and that dream only became strengthened by the fact that you were also a fighter pilot. Part of me wanted to fly by your side I think. Either way, I flunked it- bad. It was like floodgates opening, every ounce of the hatred I had tried to keep at bay, all the negative thoughts, the depression, the stress, all of it just came rushing over me like a tsunami and I couldn’t help myself I guess. I relapsed after a year clean Hunk found me. The Garrison almost kicked me out, but after much convincing from myself, Hunk, and, reluctantly, my family, they let me stay on the condition that I spend two weeks at a hospital with that monitored me 24/7 and deemed me safe to return, and that I have my door unlocked for nightly check ups,” Lance spills, all while Keith listens whole heartedly. He never would’ve expected that. Whenever he did see Lance in the halls of the Garrison, he always had a smile on his face, chatting or goofing around with other students. There’s no way anyone would’ve suspected what was going on underneath.

 

“I remember those two weeks you were gone,” Keith speaks up.

 

“What?” Lance asks back in disbelief. “Wait, wait, wait! So, you’re admitting you do remember me from the Garrison!”

 

“I-”

 

“I knew it! I fucking knew it! I mean how could you honestly forget me, ya know! But still, I wasn’t sure and-”

 

“Lance,” Keith spits out, looking at the other boy, unimpressed, making him shut his mouth quickly. A silence fall around the two of them, a twinge awkward with Lance’s revealed wrists still held in Keith’s hands, the weight of his story hanging on both of their shoulders. “I’m glad.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I’m glad you’re okay. Ya know. Like, I’m glad I got the chance to know you and that you’re not hurting yourself anymore,” Keith mumbles, bringing one of his wrists up to brush against his lips softly, making Lance choke on his spit. Keith’s eyelashes flutter against his cheeks as he pushes up against a scar or two, more breathing against the taut skin. “Don’t do it again, okay? I don’t want you hurt.”

 

And as if this universe was happy with where they were, the heavy darkness surrounded them like a warm blanket, engulfing Lance in what felt like an endless amount of Keith’s light kisses against his wrists, even though the weight of his hands were disappearing from his wrists and the pounding from their bands outside the bathroom began to fade. He felt content in the darkened abyss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i blushed SOOOO hard writing shiro singing that one song. I remember when I first listened to it and even pondered the idea of shiro singing it i had to time out i was on fire. 
> 
> next up tho is steven universe au and all im saying is... garnet.


	8. the answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the gang meets kai. also much soft gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello im back at it with another chapter, wild i know. im trying to give yall as much content as i can while im free because i have a job interview on friday for a swim teacher position at a kids swimming center, in which i will become a real life makoto, and then next week i have my birthday party, my actual birthday, and then a visit to the DPS (vomit noises)
> 
> either way enjoy this really short kinda shitty chapter. this is the SU chapter you've all been screaming for, be prepared to be largely dissappointed and let down lmfao. 
> 
> also art of Kai in the beginning.

 

The smell of dirt and old wood filled their nostrils as they all reappeared in a group once more. As their eyes adjust to their surroundings, Lance caught a suspicious glance from Pidge and hoped desperately that his cheeks weren’t still red. A noise drags his attention away from her before he could dwell on the moment Keith and himself had shared previously. He takes in the wooden walls of the barn around him and curiously eyes the truck that had… snoring coming from it? 

 

Then, a tall man peeks their head around the open barn doors, looking around with all four of his eyes. Wait- all four?! Lance has to take a double take, watching them step into the barn, tip-toeing along. They’re taller than Shiro, and have one set of eyes, a bright cyan blue, and another below them, a firey orange. Their skin, even in the dark, looks purpley and incredibly smooth. Their hair brushes his shoulders and presents in unusual color, starting at the roots as a pinky-red before fading into a purpley-blue at the ends. He’s tamed the wild, wavy hair with an elastic band that pulls it into a loose ponytail that rests on their neck. 

 

Lance watches in curiosity as he enters the bed of the truck, shuffling through the blankets stored there until they find what they’re looking for. “Hunk!” They exclaim in excitement. 

Suddenly, a young Hunk’s head pops up from the blankets, a wide grin on his face. “Kai! Is it morning already?”

 

“It’s midnight, happy birthday, Hunk!” The man, Kai, smiles back. 

 

“Oh man,” Hunk mumbles before reaching out to grab Kai’s face between both of his pudgy hands. “Are you finally going to tell me you’re a fusion of the gems Lance and Keith like you promised?”

 

“A what?” Keith questions, eyebrows pinched in confusion. 

 

“Fusion?” Pidge mumbles. 

 

“Oh, you already know all about that, Hunk,” Kai raises an eyebrow, still smirking at Hunk, who sighs, collapsing back into his blankets nested into the back of the truck. 

 

“It’s true,” Hunk mumbles, annoyed. 

 

“But… what you don’t know is how Lance and Keith first met.”

 

“OMG! I don’t!” Hunk whisper screams, instantly back to being excited once more, practically having stars in his eyes. Kai giggles knowingly. 

 

Suddenly, the scenery around them melts away, but Kai’s voice remains. It’s like a dream, but with a narrator. “The Earth, five thousand seven-hundred and fifty years ago. It was a promising site of a new gem colony, but progress was being halted by a small, persistent group of rebels. A team of diplomatic gems were sent from homeworld to investigate. Among those gems was Lance,” The view around them changes into a beautiful grand hallway, between its walls was Lance, walking in a suit that looked distantly Altean. The only thing different about his was the fact his skin was tinted sky blue, his hair, still curly, but now a dark turquoise. And then his eyes- cyan. 

 

“A rare aristocratic homeworld gem with the power to see into the future. Assigned to him were three Ruby’s, Akira, Isamu, and Keith, common soldiers with a mission to protect him, ” Kai’s voice still rings all around them. Following right behind Lance were what looked like three Keith’s all walking together. One of them doned a longer mullet, while another a shorter one, and then there was just… Keith, as in the one they were familiar with now. Each of the Ruby Keith’s had skin the color of lava, hair a dark red, and eyes a firey orange. 

 

“Hey, Akira!” One of the Ruby Keith’s, the one with the shorter hair, presumably Isamu, elbows the other with the longer hair, Akira. Smirking they continue, “Can’t wait til those rebels get here.”

 

“Yeah, when I see those rebels I’m gonna punch them right in their faces,” The ultra-mullet addition Keith grumbles real smug, raising their fist and waving it about. 

 

“What are you sayin? I’m gonna punch them all over their bodies and then it’ll be over!” Isamu replies, making Lance raise a questioning eyebrow. 

 

“What if I just punch you!” Akira smirks, punching Isamu right in their shoulder while sticking out their tongue quite childishly. 

 

Meanwhile, Keith rolls his eyes, finally stepping towards his other red replicas, “Oh, cmon, we’ll punch them together when we fuse, that’s why they sent, uh, three of us,” He grumbled, annoyed. 

 

“Three this!” Isamu cries, raising a fist and punching Keith right in his hands, which he’d raised to shield his face. The impact of the punch sent him stumbling back into Lance, making everyone around them gasp and still. Keith’s eyes widen, jumping away from him while Lance remains quiet. 

 

“Oh, I, uhm, I’m so sorry, I- lemme ju-” Keith began to stumble, reaching out to Lance.  

 

“I’m fine,” Lance sighs, looking up to Keith, who freezes.

 

“What?” Keith squawks. 

 

“It’s okay, it was bound to happen,” Lance calmly says, arms out in a negotiating manner and a small smile hinting at his lips. 

 

“I- uh, okay,” Keith awkward mumbles, making nearly everyone, including himself, watching cringe. 

 

“Now, please wait here, I must attend to my duties,” Lance replies, making all of the ‘Rubies’ mumbles some affirmation and going stiff into, what reminded Shiro of, a military stance. 

 

“Lance had been called to Earth by Blue Diamond specifically to share his vision of the future,” Kai’s voice continues as they watch Lance walk into a room where Allura, also tinted blue like Lance, sat. 

 

“My diamond, I’ve arrived,” Lance spoke, sounding extremely formal. The way he spoke sounded weird to everyone, hearing him sound so… uptight was odd. 

 

“Lance, tell me what will happen here,” Allura spoke. 

 

“I foresee the rebels attacking the cloud arena, before they are cornered they will destroy the physical forms of seven gems, including two of my Ruby guards and myself,” Lance speaks so casually even though he was talking about the death of himself and six others. “After my form is destroyed the rebels will be captured. The rebellion ends here.”

 

“Thank you, Lance,” Allura said, relieved. “That’s all I needed to know.”

 

“I look forward to speaking with you again once I reform back on homeworld,” Lance bows before exiting and returning back to where Keith, Akira, and Isamu still stood waiting. 

 

“Lance knew he would be a casualty but it did not phase him. He saw his whole life laid out before him and he had already accepted all of it,” Kai mumbled. 

 

“What a beautiful place to build a colony,” Lance sighs, turning to look at Keith who stares back at him in surprise. “I wish I could’ve seen more of this planet.”

 

“Uh, there’s still time,” Keith weakly replied. 

 

“That is a nice thought,” Lance smiled, turning his sights forward once more. “But… no.”

 

Keith stared back with wide eyes before a loud voice rings out throughout the room they were stood in. “Blue Diamond leave this planet!” Every other multi-colored gem or person or whatever they were gasped and turned to the voice, horrified. “This colony will not be completed!”

 

“It’s the rebels!” Isamu squawks while Lance stands calmly as if nothing at all was going on around him. “Who are you?! Show yourselves!”

 

“We are Voltron, the defenders of the universe!” And there, as the smoke cleared, stood Shiro and Matt, each tinted in their own colors: gray and a yellow-green. 

 

“The attack was right on schedule,” Kai’s voice rang out as Matt dove forward, using his two swords to slice through four gems that tried to approach himself and Shiro. 

 

With unified shouts, all three of the Ruby Keith’s ran forward before being encaptured in a bright white light and appear as one massive Keith, much taller than Kai or the other gems they had seen previously. Together, they try to attack Shiro, who only stands smiling and waiting, letting out a scoff before swiftly attacking, letting Matt cleanly cut through Akira and Isamu, leaving only two rubies in their wake. Keith collapses to the ground, managing to lift his head high enough to make eye contact with Lance, stood before Matt. “Thank you, Keith, you did your best,” Lance smiles back sadly.

 

“Keith suddenly realized what Lance meant, he had known that he would fail. Lance had accepted it but Keith… Keith did not!” Kai’s voice roared with anger as Keith pushed himself from the marble floor while Matt began to pull back his blade, aimed right at Lance. 

 

“No!” Keith screamed, racing to Lance and knocking him out of the way. Time seemed to slow around the two as they spun together, away from Matt. The same blinding white light from earlier surrounded the two of them before spitting out one. All of them let out a gasp in realization as Kai stood before them, hair much longer than when they had seen him first and more spotty with color than beginning with one and ending with another. All of the other gems that were in the room with them let out a horrified gasp as Kai, or Keith and Lance, or… whatever, took notice of their new form. 

 

Matt and Shiro stare on in surprise, before Matt shakes his head and goes to dive forward to finish what he had started. But instead, Shiro grabs his arm. “Wait, this is...” He whispers, before realizing just where they were, people beginning to close in on them in anger. “Let's go.”

 

“Uh, bye!” Matt exclaims and just like that Shiro and Matt were gone, leaving Kai alone with all of the gems. 

 

“Is this…” Kai begins to mumble before groaning and being overtook by light once more, returning Lance and Keith, separated now. 

 

“A furious crowd closed in around Keith and Lance, they’d never seen a fusion of two different types of gems,” Kai informed.

 

“Unbelievable!” One gem shouts.

 

“Disgusting!” Another follows.

 

“This is unheard of!”

 

“The rebels have fled, Lance, this is not the scenario you described!” Allura’s voice cut through the crowd, obviously furious. 

 

Lance kneeled before her, eyes wide and fearful. “This is not what I saw! I don’t know what happened! I-”

 

“No!” Keith’s cry cuts him off, turning all eyes on to him. “It was me!”

 

“Clearly,” Allura scoffs in disgust. “How dare you fuse with a member of my court.”

 

“Forgive me, I-”

 

“You will be broken for this!” With Allura’s shout, other gem guards begin to close in on the two. Then, a hand grips Keith’s wrist and Lance and Keith are running. 

 

“Wait! What are you doing!?” Keith screams in protest as Lance hesitates in front of a cliff ledge before pulling the both of them off and into the cloudy abyss below. “No!” 

 

Thanks to Lance seeming to be able to… float? They land safely on grassy ground. “Why’d you do that!? I have to get you back up there!” Keith whirs around almost the second his feet touch the ground, staring at Lance in anger. 

 

Lance shrinks back in fear, maybe slight shame. “They were gonna to break you!”

 

“You cares!? There’s tons of me!” Keith yells back, before staring up into the raining sky and groaning in annoyance and frustration. “Well what do we do now?!” He questions, beginning to pace the field they were stood in. Meanwhile, Lance stands, mouth slightly parted and eyes wide as he watches Keith. 

 

“Lance has known every moment of his life, how it would happen, and when. But because of Keith’s impulsive gesture, he’d suddenly jumped the track of fate and everything from that instance all was wrong and new. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t move, he was… frozen,” Kai narrated.  

 

Keith let out an indignant squawk as ice began to surround Lance from his feet to his knees, keeping him stuck in his place, not like he would’ve moved anyway. “We have to get you out of here!” Keith shouts, hooking his arms around Lance’s waist and yanking him free like it was nothing. Lance gasped as he was held in Keith’s arms, bridal style. “C’mon.”

 

Thankfully, after much roaming around in the rain, they stumble across a cave. Upon closer inspection by Keith, he finally sets down Lance. “Alright, this should be good for now.”

 

Lance slinks to the ground, sitting on the welcoming, dry dirt. Brushing away a few wet strands of blue hair, he glances up to Keith through his eyelashes, his carribean blue eyes sparkling just so. “Thank you.”

 

Keith’s eyes widen and jaw falling slack, cheeks flushing an ever darker red. A crackling in heard throughout the cave before a light begins to illuminate the darkness around them. Keith glances downwards before letting out an embarrassed yell at the sight of flames that had been produced by his feet. 

 

“Jesus, you sure are an awkward little jumping bean in this universe, aren’t you,” Lance muses.

 

“Shut up,” Keith grumbles in return, making Lance chuckle.

 

After getting a fire set up in their little cave, Lance huddles in a ball near the crackling flames while Keith paces back at forth mumbling incessantly to himself. “What kind of ruby am I supposed to be? Look at this, it’s all my fault you’re stranded here! How am I gonna save you?”

 

“You already did,” Lance speaks up, quietly. 

 

“What?!”

 

“You already saved me,” Lance repeats again, making Keith let out a huff, tugging at his dark red locks and falling backwards to finally sit. 

 

They remain in silence for a few moments, both lost in their own minds but still thinking about the same thing. Kai. 

 

“I-I’ve seen gems fuse before but I had no idea that’s what it felt like,” Lance finally breaks the silence, looking up and smiling, almost excitedly, at Keith. “I always thought… I never realized that fusion… that you disappear like that.”

 

“It’s never like that!” Keith pipes up. “Whenever I’ve fused it’s just been me but bigger! I’ve never had four eyes before.

 

“I’ve never had more than two!” Lance replies. “It was nice.”

 

Time slips by them until they’re watching Keith and Lance laying in grass, stargazing. “So… you’ve never fused before right?” Keith mumbles, coyly eyeing Lance. 

 

“Of course not, when would I have ever?” 

 

“I’m so sorry,” Keith quickly apologizes, making Lance furrow his eyebrows and stare back at him in confusion. 

 

“No, no! Don’t be!”

 

“And now you’re here forever!” Keith groans, sitting up in frustration. Lance follows him lead, sitting up beside him. 

 

“What about you?” Lance mumbles softly. 

 

“What about me?” Keith asks confused.

 

“Well you’re here too,” Lance softly smiles, placing his hand on Keith. “We’re here together.”

 

Picking up their interlocked hands, Lance stands, pulling Keith along with him. Once they're standing together, Lance managed to snag Keith’s other hand, pulling him along, despite his awkward stepping. Tentatively, as if testing out how Keith would react, Lance begins to spin them slowly, guiding them into a slow dance. Finally, a small smile finds its way onto Keith’s lips and he’s leading Lance into another dance move of his own and then they’re dancing together. 

 

Lance lets out a loud laugh, throwing his head back as Keith trips on his own feet, making him blush and look up at Lance, cheeks a slightly darker blue with laughter. Keith can’t help the smile that is present on his face and that giggles that manage to slip through his lips and soon they’re dancing and laughing like maniacs. It’s unsurprising when a familiar white light engulfs them and only Kai remains, laughing all by himself. 

 

“I was back! I was someone and I didn’t know who,” Kai’s voice returns as the old version of himself stumbled through woods on unsteady legs. “But I felt like I was getting the hang of my strange new form… and then I fell.”

 

Kai tumbled through bushes and down a hill, finally ending up in a pile of their own limbs in a garden full of roses. “Ouch,” He groaned, glancing up only to see the tip of a sword in his face, making him yelp and fling his body backwards. “Don’t hurt him! Don’t hurt… me?”

 

Matt glared at Kai before his features softened realizing just who he was. “It’s you. The fusion.”

 

“We didn’t mean to fuse! Well… we did this time,” Kai blushed, looking downwards guilty, sending a few multi-colored strands of long wavy hair into two of his eyes four eyes. “We’ll unfuse, w-we’ll…”

 

“No, no, please, I’m glad to see you again,” Shiro steps out from somewhere behind Matt, making himself known. 

 

“And there they were, Black rutilated quartz or Shiro, the leader of the rebellion, and his terrifying renegade, Sphene, better known as Matt,” Kai explained. 

 

“Rebellious Shiro, huh?” Lance mused.

 

“Terrifying Matt, huh?” Pidge said in disbelief. 

 

“Matt is as terrifying as a puppy,” Shiro chuckled. 

 

“Looks pretty scary here, if you ask me,” Hunk mumbled, cautiously eyeing Matt, who leaned on one of his swords in front of Kai. 

 

“I don’t… upset you?” Kai asked, clearly confused. 

 

“Who cares about how I feel!” Shiro grins. “How you feel is bound to be much more interesting.”

 

“How I feel?” Kai mumbles. “I-I feel… lost? And scared. And.. and happy. Why am I so sure that I’d rather be this than everything I was supposed to be? And that I’d rather do this than everything I was supposed to do?”

 

Matt glances over to Shiro with a smile as he lets out a hearty laugh. “Welcome to Earth.”

 

“C-Can you tell me?” Kai asks quickly, standing to their feet with a certain urgency to his movements. “How was Keith able to alter fate? Why was Lance willing to give up everything? What am I?!”

 

“No more questions,” Shiro states before giving them a soft smile, leaning forward in excitement. “Don’t ever question this. You already are the answer.”

 

Kai looks up in awe as Shiro takes his hands with a welcoming smile, Matt nodding to them, face proud and smug. And then the rose garden melts away around them and they’re back in the barn with present Kai and Hunk. 

 

“So… what was it?” Hunk questions, a curious look on his face as he stares up at Kai leaning over him. Kai raises an eyebrow. “The answer,” He clarifies. 

 

“Love,” Kai whispers, face going soft with a smile. 

 

“Wooowww! I knew it,” Hunk smiles.

 

“So did I,” Kai proudly replies. 

 

And whether or not this world faded to black in the form of a star was a thought for another time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried to write this sort of how garnet narrated this episode in SU, sorry if it sounds choppy and rushed. everything i write is rushed tbh lol. 
> 
> but yeah whoopy u finally got the steven universe chapter, but trust me when i say my fusion chapter is much better and more original than this and pretty cool, at least I think. But I'm not writing or posting that for a quite a bit to give a space between this chapter and that one. still i hope this chapter was moderately okay.
> 
> also it was very hard deciding whether of not to make rose and pearl shiro and matt or alfor and coran. and then have steven be allura but i decided to do this instead but the other way works as well!


	9. seeing you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang is thrown into mayhem from the get go in this one but they don't expect the absolute devastation that comes along with it. 
> 
> CW: child death, blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: child death, blood, violence.

They’re pulled out of the deafening darkness by the sound of blaster fire and metal clanging, scraping against one another. Opening their eyes, they have a brief moment to take in the red tinted castle walls before being plunged into darkness once more. It takes them all a moment to realize that they weren’t slipping into another reality, but that the darkness was caused by a strobing red alarm on both ends of the training deck.

 

There was more clatter, sounds of tingy metal hitting a more solid force before the red light lit the room enough for them to all see the Red Paladin armor surrounded by Galra. This paladin, assumably Keith, fought desperately to fight them all off, pushing with his bayard against blasters and blades alike. Grunts were heard from both Keith and the Galra surrounding him as he takes down one of the two remaining. He’s almost got the last one until a shrill cry rings off the walls - a child’s cry. It’s impossible not to notice how wide Keith’s eyes go as the sound meets his ears, suddenly trying to get a look at where it’d come from. The last thing they’re able to see before the lights go out once more is Keith being kicked to the ground. 

 

In the blinding darkness, the child’s cries and Keith’s groans of frustration were enough to put all of them on edge. There were only so many fights of war you could be in to not get antsy and restless when you were meant to do nothing but watch else fight. When the lights come back up, Keith’s on the ground, red helmet tossed a distance away from him, revealing long cascading black hair and a deep gash above his right eyebrow that was beginning to seep crimson blood down his temple. His hands were planted on the Galra soldier's shoulders, working to push them off from their position on top of him, when amidst the crying, words appeared. 

 

“Daddy!” The voice called from across the room. Much to all of their combined surprise, Keith’s head instantly snaps to the side in response and their gazes all follow his to the other side of the training deck. The sight before them was enough to make ice run through all of their veins. Across the red sea of shadows, a Galra stood, holding a small toddler, looking around the age of three, if Lance had to guess, to their chest. That wasn’t it though, in the hand that wasn’t around the small  _ human _ child, was a blaster, the barrel of which was pressed deeply into their squirming side. 

 

“No,” The older Keith whispered, gaze turning absolutely murderous. He let out what could only be described as a growl, pushing the Galra off of him with a new found strength, plunging his sword right through their abdomen, like they were nothing but a piece of paper. Almost faster than they could keep up with, Keith was running the distance to get to the toddler.

 

“Come any closer and I won’t hesitate to kill this little fleshling of yours,” The Galra holding the child warned, making Keith’s movement come to a stuttering stop, clearly conflicted. This close to them, they could see the tears that ran from the child’s blue eyes, streaming down his shaking chubby cheeks. 

 

“Put him down,” Keith snarled, baring his teeth at the Galra, who simply snickered at him. 

 

“No can do,” They sing-song back, pausing and letting out a hum. “Unless… you hand over the lions. Precious cargo for precious cargo, right?” 

 

“I’ll fucking kill you,” Keith growled with such malice that even they found themselves recoiling slightly. They’d never seen such absolute anger mixed with desperation in Keith, they supposed they’d never given him something so… special to fight for. A child, Keith’s child apparently, squirmed, letting out a choked sob, trying to reach a chubby tanned hand for Keith, eyes so full of terror. A child born into war. 

 

“Wrong answer,” The Galra replies, tone bored, right before the lights go out once more. 

 

They all wait anxiously for the lights to go back up, to get a sense of what exactly was going on. They jumped when a gunshot went off, a small scream, followed by a second shot- then it was eerily silent. All of them slowly begin to realize… there was no more crying. 

 

When the lights come back on, they all try to take in the scene before them. First, they start with the blood, it covered almost everything around them, a mix of the dark magenta that leaked from Galra and colliding with deep red human blood. Then, their eyes try to register the bodies amongst the blood. The Galra that had once held the child hostage was now laying limp, completely mauled, underneath Keith, who was hunched over, panting, and completely covered in the fuchsia liquid, so much so they could barely see the red mark of Voltron on his chest plate. They watched as Keith rolled off the body, eyes almost instantly widening, realizing and remembering, as his head whips around. That is… until he spots it. 

 

There, laying completely still in a growing puddle of blood, red blood, is the toddler from earlier. Lance feels his stomach twist violently when he sees the deep bleeding wound in their tiny torso, briefly noting he could hear Hunk gagging beside him. “Finn?” Keith brokenly calls, his voice thick with so many emotions that Lance couldn’t even begin to list. When he gets no response he quickly crawls over to the child, leaning his ear over the slightly parted lips of the boy, Finn, to see if he was breathing. The choked sob that echoes through the silence is answer enough to Keith’s findings and he swears, Lance could hear each and every one of their hearts shatter at once. 

 

“No, no, no,” Keith desperately wheezes, pressing his hands to the child's small chest. Blinking away tears he hopelessly tries to pump his hands up and down, trying to get the blood to begin flowing again. To see his child’s eyes again. “C’mon Finn, don’t leave me, don’t-” 

 

Keith continues to try and pump life into the small body restlessly, taking breaks to try and tip back the small head and transfer air from his lungs and into Finn’s,  _ anything _ . At some point, the alarm turns off, switching the lights back to the normal florescents, but the older Keith barely pays any attention to that. After about the fifth repetition of futile CPR attempts, a look of defeat and absolute agony flickers through Keith’s indigo eyes as his hands lift off the boy’s chest, shaking severely and covered in blood. After a moment, Keith’s face scrunches up letting out a loud wail, as he gently lifts Finn’s much too tiny body into his arms, cradling him to his chest. 

 

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Keith whispers between bawling, running a hand through his soft black ringlets, his tears falling on the boys cooling skin. “You were never supposed to die, not this young, not like this. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe, I’m- I love you so much, please, come back, come back.”

 

Keith is hunched over Finn’s limp body, almost like he was still trying to protect him, still crying when the training door swishes open and three panting figures burst into the room. “Keit-” A deeper voice calls, but comes to a halting stop at the sight before them. Turning, they’re hearts drop deeper into their stomachs, the look of horror on Lance’s slightly bruised face, the shock on Allura and Hunk’s faces no far behind him. Keith doesn’t look up to meet Lance’s eyes, simply rocking back and forth, shaking his head and crying. 

 

They watch Lance take a tentative step forward, “Keith?” He tries once more, voice shaking. “W-What are you doing?”

 

When Keith once again doesn’t answer, Lance takes more shaky steps towards the man kneeling on the ground until he’s towering over him. “Let me see what you’re holding,” Lance states, his voice surprisingly steady, that is until Keith lets out another heart wrenching sob.

 

“I-I can’t,” Keith responds. 

 

“Let me see him,” Lance begs, dropping to his knees next to Keith, tears brimming in his eyes. Keith’s head slowly tilts upwards, showing puffy glossy eyes, tears streaming like rivers down his face, as he begins to pull away, fully revealing Finn’s body. A sharp gasp is heard from Hunk and Allura’s direction at the same time a loud broken cry escapes Lance’s lips, reaching out to scoop the boys body from Keith’s lap. 

 

“No, my baby boy,” Lance sobs out, clutching him to his chest, only for the boys head to lull to the side, void of life, the wound in his side still bleeding and smearing across Lance’s blue armor. “Please, no. Finn, it’s Papa, please, you gotta wake up. Remember, I was going to take you to the beach? To see abuela? You gotta wake up so we can go, we can’t swim when you’re-”

 

Lance’s voice breaks off as his tears and anguish takes over. Keith scoots himself close to Lance, wrapping himself around him, Finn’s body between them. Without warning, Lance’s head snaps up, looking to Allura with wide eyes full of tears. “We need to put him in a pod,” He demands, beginning to try and stand up, stumbling slightly before finally picking up himself and Finn. 

 

Allura’s mouth opens and closes speechlessly, glassy tears slipping silently down her cheeks as her eyes flicker between Finn’s dead body and Lance’s serious face. “Lance, it’s too late, he’s-”

 

“Put him in a fucking pod, Allura!” Lance yells, fury and heartbreak in his voice that only makes the broken down Keith, still on the floor, let out another cluster of sobs. 

 

“It’s my fault, it’s- I’m sorry- I-” Keith shakes his head, rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes. Lance looks brokenly at Keith and then at their dead child in his arms, the one he’d promised to cook pizza with later tonight, the one he was supposed to tuck into bed, the one who was supposed to wake himself and Keith up the following morning by jumping on their bed. This was the child he was supposed to take home to meet his parents, Finn’s grandparents, the one he was supposed to see grow, go through awkward phases, go to school, fall in love, but now-

 

“Please,” Lance croaked, holding Finn’s body out like an offering, trying not to pay attention to the way his tiny limbs drop and hang like dead weight. “You have to do something, anything!”

 

“Lance, buddy,” Hunk cries, shaking his head back at him, a silent set of words travelling between the two. And then Lance is sobbing ahead, head hung over the child’s body. Shiro could only imagine that kind of heartbreak, losing a child, especially in such a torturous way.

 

Lance doesn’t realize he’s crying watching all of this until he feels Hunk’s large hand on his shoulder and turns to see soft brown eyes full of concern. Slowly, a shaky hand travels to his cheeks and feels the dampness in surprise, his mouth parting. “Oh,” He mumbles. Lance wasn’t  _ that _ surprised that he was crying, this was extremely sad and hit him hard in places deep inside him. He’d never thought of having any children in the near future, and definitely not in space, but that’s also because he never saw it as a possibility. You kinda need two parts to that equation most times, but now with all of these things with Keith, whatever they were travelling through, it hurt. It hurt to watch them tortured and broken in other realities but still together. It hurt to know that this reality could’ve been theirs, could still be theirs. That if Lance were to get with Keith,  _ or anyone _ , and it happened to work out, that things could turn disastrous so easily. Galra could kill one of them tomorrow, or Keith could find someone better after Lance was too far in to not get hurt, or they could have a child, like in this universe, and then lose it all. Watching the utter heartbreak and devastation on the both of their faces was something he never wanted to see on either of their faces again. The desperation in both of their voices begging their child, so young, to wake up. A child that didn’t even get to live yet, probably only just beginning to figure out that they were their own person, Keith and Lance of this reality were probably only just beginning to learn their son’s personality and now all of that was gone so fast. It felt like an icepick in his heart. 

 

“Why would whatever this is show us this?” Keith ask, his voice cracking slightly. When he turns around, Lance manages to catch how glossy his eyes looked in this light. Maybe, he wasn’t alone in this either. 

 

“Why have they shown us any of this?” Pidge asks right back. A frown is deep on her face and she’d be lying if she hadn’t let a few tears slip. Crying still echoes from the scene behind them, making the atmosphere incredibly heavy over them. 

 

“Whatever the reason is, it’s pretty obvious by this point it has something to do with Lance and Keith,” Shiro begins, his voice gruff and saddened, as his eyes flicker around the group cautiously. “Something with them… being together.”

 

“What?” Lance asks dumbly and absolutely despises how crackly and thick with tears it comes out. Quickly he wipes away the dampness from his cheeks, blinking quickly a few times before looking back up. He tries not to pay attention to the worried expression Keith is staring at him with out of the corner of his eye. 

 

“Shiro’s right, every reality or universe we’ve been to, it has you two in it,” Hunk adds, looking at Lance specifically and then letting his eyes roam around the group as well.

 

“But you guys are in them too,” Lance tries to argue back, but even he knows it’s pointless. None of these universe have specifically focused on any of them. Just himself and Keith. 

 

“Only as side characters though,” Pidge mutters, playing nervously with the frame on her glasses. 

 

“I don’t see what-” Lance begins before he’s cut off abruptly. 

 

“This has something to do with us, Lance. And whether is applies or not, I still think it’s important to note that we… we’re in love in every one of these universes,” Keith looks at Lance with a set expression, arms crossed. If Lance let his gaze linger long enough on himself, he might be able to see the faint pinkness of his cheeks or the way he squirmed saying the word ‘love’. 

 

“I wouldn’t say we’re-” Lance tries to start saying but Keith let’s out a frustrated groan, throwing his hands up in the air.

 

“Can you just fucking let this rivalry or hatred towards me go for two seconds to realize what’s right in front of your face? Is it really that horrible imagining that in some universe you may be in love with me?!” Keith yells, fists balled up at his side. There’s a moment of silence where everyone simply stares between Keith and Lance in slight astonishment at Keith’s outburst. 

 

“I-” Lance croaks, staring at Keith’s fuming face, those indigo eyes burning holes into his own. He can’t help it when his mouth opens and closes helplessly, no noise coming out. 

 

“Whatever, just forget I said anything,” Keith seethes, quietly, turning away from Lance and crossing his arms. Shiro’s gazes narrows in on the raven haired boy, the way his eyes still sparkled wetly, the clenching and unclenching of his jaw contrasted by the slight quiver in his bottom lip. Shiro’s known Keith since before Keith could probably even begin to under himself fully, he knew every one of Keith’s looks, the way his bit the tip of his tongue when he was trying to tell a lie, or when he taps his thumb and middle fingers’ pads together eradicated when he’s anxious. This look though… this resembles… heartache? 

 

Shiro’s eyes widen slightly, his lips parting in a soft ‘o’ as everything begins to fall into place in his mind. Well… this made a lot more sense now. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed this before, the obvious way Keith’s eyes always lingered a little bit too long on Lance when they were in the training room, how he subconsciously stood in the closest spot of Lance, the twisted look of bitter jealousy every time Lance flirted with some random alien chick. Shiro had always assumed it was Keith being hot-headed and annoyed. 

 

Keith was in love with Lance. 

 

And with that realization, they’re all tumbling back into the darkness, sadness heavy in their hearts. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys soo uhhhh it's been about seven million years since i updated and i just want to apologize for that. srsly i love this story and i think about it like ten times everyday. im constantly coming up with new ideas and chapters for it but whenever i tried to write them i'd get a few paragraphs in and just end up hating it. so i legit have a while 70 page google doc of half written chapters for this story.  
> on top of that, since my last chapter, a lot has been going on in my life. i got a pretty demanding high stress job, am going back to school, ive been sick for the past two months straight, and a lot of other family stuff. so it's been kind of hard to find time to write, but i hope this was decent- sorry it wasn't super long or anything.  
> did you cry? i cried. poor future lance and keef. poor oblivious stupid lance. poor pining heartbroken keith. rip finn. 
> 
> you can always hit me up at any of my social medias!  
> twitter: fairyuphoria  
> amino: cryptid punk


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